Knave of Diamonds (Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes, #19) by Laurie R. King
Narrator: Amy Scanlon, Steven Crossley, Jefferson Mays
Format: audiobook, eARC
Source: supplied by publisher via Edelweiss, supplied by publisher via Libro.fm
Formats available: hardcover, large print, ebook, audiobook
Genres: historical fiction, historical mystery, mystery
Series: Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes #19
Pages: 336
Length: 9 hours and 39 minutes
Published by Bantam, Recorded Books on June 10, 2025
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org, Better World Books
Goodreads

Mary Russell’s allegiances are tested by the reappearance of her long-lost uncle—and a tantalizing case not even Sherlock Holmes could solve.

When Mary Russell was a child, she adored her black sheep Uncle Jake. But she hasn’t heard from him in many years, and she assumed that his ne’er-do-well ways had brought him to a bad end somewhere—until he presents himself at her Sussex door. Yes, Jake is back, and with a load of problems for his clever niece. Not the least of which is the reason the family rejected him in the first place: He was involved—somehow—in the infamous disappearance of the Irish Crown Jewels from an impregnable safe in Dublin Castle.

It was a theft that shook a government, enraged a king, threatened the English establishment—and baffled not only the Dublin police and Scotland Yard, but Sherlock Holmes himself. And, now, Jake expects Russell to step into the middle of it all? To slip away with him, not telling Holmes what she’s up to? Knowing that the theft—unsolved, hushed-up, scandalous—must have involved Mycroft Holmes as well?

Naturally, she can do nothing of the sort. Siding with her uncle, even briefly, could only place her in opposition to both her husband-partner and his secretive and powerful brother. She has to tell Jake no.

On the other hand, this is Jake—her father’s kid brother, her childhood hero, the beloved and long-lost survivor of a much-diminished family.

Conflicting loyalties and international secrets, blatant lies and blithe deceptions: sounds like another case for Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes.

My Review:

“There’s nothing more disarming than a Jack Russell terrier,” according to Mary Russell’s long-absent rogue of an uncle, Jake Russell. Jake was so much the epitome of the black sheep of the family that he managed to fade completely into the shadows for fourteen long, and often dark, years. But now he’s arrived on his niece’s doorstep in Sussex, hoping that he can work his ‘disarming’ charm on her, just as he used to.

Jake starts out this adventure by trying to stack the deck in his favor – as he usually does. In this particular instance, that means timing his approach to his niece AFTER he’s certain that her much too observant husband, Sherlock Holmes, is on his way elsewhere.

But the Mary Russell that Jake remembers was only eleven, albeit clever and mischievous enough to let herself be part of one of his dodgy but well-intended cons. After the death of her parents and younger brother – an event that did not bring her beloved uncle around to rescue her – and after ten years as the apprentice and later wife of the ‘Great Detective’ himself, Sherlock Holmes, Mary Russell is not nearly so innocent or gullible as she once was.

Which doesn’t mean that she won’t, eventually, go along with the scheme that brought him to her door. Only that he’ll have to be a bit more, well, honest about his intentions. She may still love him, but she’s also VERY well aware of who and what he is, and she doesn’t trust him very far at all.

And she shouldn’t. Because, as always, Jake Russell is no better than he ought to be, and up to all of his old tricks. In fact, he needs Mary to help him finish one of his own actual old tricks, to help him steal back something he stole long ago, and get a bit of his own back against the man who betrayed his trust – and perhaps even his heart.

All she has to do is help him trace the untraceable, find the unfindable, and close an old cold case that defied not just the Crown’s attempt at solving it, but even the efforts of the Great Detective himself.

Escape Rating A-: I picked this up because I love this series. I’ve loved it from the very first book, The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, THIRTY YEARS ago, and I’m not likely to change my mind. The next Russell book is always on my Most Anticipated List, and whatever its title turns out to be, it will be as soon as it’s announced as well.

Because this entry in the series was lovely, made even lovelier this time around because I started it in audio. The voices were excellent, Amy Scanlon as Mary Russell, Stephen Crossley as Holmes, and Jefferson Mays as Mary’s uncle Jake Russell. Scanlon and Crossley have both voiced their parts in earlier entries in the series, but Mays was a new voice and was as perfectly cast as they were.

I certainly enjoyed their performances, and it worked well to have three voices as the characters narrate their own chapters, but I also had a driving need, as always with Russell’s adventures, to find out what happened next.

So I switched to text and finished in just a couple of well-spent hours.

The previous book in this series, The Lantern’s Dance, was a bit different from the usual run of the series in that it dived a bit deeper in the Holmes’ family history than is usual – because his own history is not a place that Sherlock Holmes himself ever seriously desires to go. It was also not a good jumping in place for the series, but was an excellent story for those who have followed the series from the beginning.

This latest book is also different from their usual adventures, but in a different and equally unusual way. Because it involves a real, historical unsolved case that was cold in Russell’s time and at our own point in time is almost 120 years frozen. And STILL unsolved.

(It reminds me a bit of the 1990 theft from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston in that the crime was never solved and the stolen loot has not surfaced to this date.)

That’s precisely what happened in the theft of the so-called Irish Crown Jewels (technically the Jewels of the Order of St. Patrick) stolen from Dublin Castle in 1907. The case was never officially solved, and the jewels have not turned up – at least not yet.

Sherlock Holmes, unfortunately, was not involved in this case as it historically occurred, but the Scotland Yard investigation by Detective Chief Inspector John Kane DID occur, as did the subsequent complete and utter suppression of his report. While there was no ‘Jake Russell’ involved in the theft, the rest of the details Jake describes to Mary are pretty close to the known facts.

So, the story told in Knave of Diamonds is, in its way, a bit like the story in Emma Donoghue’s The Paris Express or Anatomy of Evil by Will Thomas, in that the story is a fictionalization of a real, documented, historical event with added fictional characters, motivations and solutions to give the reader more insight into the event as well as tell a cracking good story.

The thing about this particular fictionalization and retelling that made this an A- instead of an A or even an A+ (I do love this series and it often hits a sweet spot between comfort read and right book, right time that sends it right to the top for me) is that a lot of the recap of the historical events is told by Jake Russell as he’s trying to, let’s call it charm, his niece into helping him out.

A good bit of Jake’s charm is his line in obfuscatory patter. He’s not exactly trying to deceive Mary, but he IS trying VERY hard to hide certain details from her well-trained and extremely observant eyes, ears, and especially mind. Because he can’t dazzle her with his brilliance – she STILL knows him too well – he’s trying very hard to baffle her with his bullshit. Of which there’s rather a lot.

To the point where Mary has to frequently wrangle him back to the point. It’s an infodump, and it’s a big one. Admittedly done as well as an infodump can be done, and probably the best option for introducing this mess of a case (the story is fascinating, but the theft, the case and the handling thereof were all utter fiascos, every single one.)

After that infodump is out of the way, the story is an absolute hoot – made even better once Holmes enters the picture. Which of course he does, not just because he’s following Mary, not even just because he doesn’t trust Jake Russell, but because Brother Mycroft wants Sherlock to finally SOLVE the original theft. And for once, Sherlock is having NONE of his brother’s machinations. The Crown had his report back in 1907, didn’t want to hear a single thing he had to say, and Sherlock is not interested in solving their problem now.

At least not on behalf of his brother OR the Crown.  After all, no one died, no one was falsely accused, and the mere theft of some shiny baubles is not enough to endanger the empire. His sense of justice is not engaged, and he just doesn’t care what happened to some bits of jewelry no matter how costly. Which doesn’t mean he wouldn’t like to know the answer. For himself. For Mary. And even, just a bit, for that irrepressible rogue, Jake Russell.

That the case was never OFFICIALLY solved does not in any way prevent this decidedly UNOFFICIAL solution from being a marvelously good story. Which it absolutely is.

Knave of Diamonds, at least in audio, concludes with a delightful little short story that shows us a bit of Jake Russell as a young but already clever and devious con man, up to the tricks that will test his wits and keep him on the run for the rest of his life. In text, the author’s notes at the end let the reader know that she’s intending for her next book to be outside the Russell and Holmes series, in fact she’s planning on a followup to the fascinating nonseries book Back to the Garden. Or at least that book wasn’t part of a series at the time. It will be, however, and I’m certainly looking forward to reading it – hopefully this time next year.