10 June 2025.
ISBN: 978-0-74903287-6 (HB)
Mary Russell had been a young girl when her parents and brother were killed in an accident, and she had been badly injured. Mary had been left to the care of an unloving relation who took her to live in the lonely Sussex downs. She had longed for her Uncle Jake, her brother’s younger brother, to come and claim her, but Jake was the black sheep of the family, who had been banished many years ago, and he did not come for her. But for Mary things had worked out well, because, when she was fifteen years old she met Sherlock Holmes, who had retired to keep bees in the countryside. Holmes recognised in Mary Russell an intelligence and enquiring mind to match his own and, in the same way, she felt drawn to him. Soon she became his helper in the investigations that he still undertook, despite his claims of being retired. Some years after their meeting, Holmes and Russell married, but they continue their investigations, both individually and as a partnership.
Holmes and Russell have just returned to their Sussex home after attending Holmes’ son’s wedding in France. They left France slightly earlier than planned because Holmes had been summoned to London by his brother, Mycroft, who works for the government in some very confidential and important capacity. Almost as soon as Holmes leaves home, Russell’s uncle turns up, and despite the years of abandonment, she feels instinctively pleased to see him and cannot turn him away. However, at the same time her analytical mind tells her that Jake is a rogue, who has come back because he wants something of her. In suitably oblique language, Jake tells Russell a story about the theft of the Irish Crown Jewels in 1907, a theft that Jake had helped to plan, but he made the mistake of trusting the wrong person. The whole theft was bungled, because the thieves and the official in charge of the jewels equalled each other in inefficiency, and in the end the Irish Crown Jewels had disappeared. Jake persuades his niece to relive old times and join him in an adventure. He is sure that together they will be able to locate the missing jewels.
At the same time, in London, Mycroft is attempting to interest Sherlock in the same matter: he has heard some rumours and wishes his brother to investigate the case of the Irish Royal Jewels again, as he had originally done in 1907. Holmes is adamant in refusing: he had come to his conclusion soon after the crime had been committed, and it had been suppressed by the King and his government, and the anger Holmes felt about this still smoulders. However, when Holmes gets back home to Sussex, he realises that Russell has set off on her own to search for the Irish Crown Jewels, and he deduces that her uncle has reinserted himself into her life and she has accompanied him. Holmes hurries to catch them up, to ensure his wife’s safety. The unlikely team of Russell, Holmes and Jake set off on their search for the stolen treasure, which takes them to the southwest of England and then to rural Ireland, meeting many interesting people on their journey, as well as encountering men whom Jake had once regarded as friends, but who are now proving themselves to be dangerous enemies.
Knave of Diamonds is the nineteenth novel featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock
Holmes, although it works well as a stand-alone novel. It is a cleverly
constructed novel with the narrative of Russell and Jake told in the First
Person and that of Holmes told in the Third Person. In my opinion, this works
extremely well, taking the reader into the head of Russell, but maintaining the
integrity of Holmes as depicted in the original stories by Conan Doyle. The
three-viewpoint structure carries the action along very effectively. The
central characters are all engaging, the plot is intriguing, and the historical
details bring Ireland as it was in the early twentieth century to vivid life.
Knave of Diamonds is an excellent read, which I recommend.
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Reviewer: Carol Westron
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