A June summer's evening, on the Sussex Downs, in 1925. Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes are called in when an old friend's aunt fails to return following a supervised outing from Bedlam. The last thing Russell wants is to deal with the mad, and yet, she can't say no. The Lady Vivian Beaconsfield has spent most of her adult life in one asylum after another, yet she seemed to be improving-- or at least, finding a point of balance in her madness. So why did she disappear? Did she take the family's jewels with her, or did someone else? The trail leads through a lunatic asylum's stony halls to the warm Venice lagoon, where beauty is jarred by Mussolini's Blackshirts, where the gilded Lido set may be tempting a madwoman, and where Cole Porter sits at a piano, playing with ideas. -- adapted from back cover.

"Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes untangle the slippery threads of insanity and deadly secrets as they investigate a disappearance in this chilling novel from New York Times bestselling Laurie R. King. "[The Mary Russell series is] the most sustained feat of imagination in mystery fiction today." Lee Child. With Mrs Hudson gone from their lives and domestic chaos building, the last thing Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, need is to help an old friend with her mad and missing aunt. Lady Vivian Beaconsfield has spent most of her adult life in one asylum after another, since the loss of her brother and father in the Great War. And although her mental state seemed to be improving, she's now disappeared after an outing from Bethlem Royal Hospital. better known as Bedlam. Mary wants nothing to do with the case--but she can't say no. And at least it will get her away from the challenges of housework and back to the familiar business of investigation. To track down the vanished woman, she brings her deductive instincts and talent for subterfuge to the fore--and of course, enlists her husband's legendary prowess. Together, she and Holmes travel from the grim confines of Bedlam to the winding canals and sun-drenched Lido cabarets of Venice--only to find the foreboding shadow of Benito Mussolini darkening the fate of a city, an era, and a tormented English lady of privilege."-- Provided by publisher.