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{{work|wppage=Mary Russell (character)}}
{{Multiple Works Need Separate Pages}}
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{{quote|"I see before me one Mary Russell, named after her paternal grandmother... She is, let us see... fifteen years of age, and despite her youth and the fact that she is not at school she intends to pass the University entrance examinations... She is obviously left-handed, one of her parents was Jewish--her mother, I think? Yes, definitely the mother--and she reads and writes Hebrew. She is at present four inches shorter than her American father--that was his suit?"|[[Sherlock Holmes]]}}
'''Mary Russell''' is the protagonist of a series of detective novels by Laurie R. King based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's [[Sherlock Holmes]] stories. After her parents and brother are killed in a car crash, 15-year-old Mary returns to the family home on the Sussex Downs. There she meets Sherlock Holmes, who retired twelve years ago in 1903 and has become a beekeeper. He is surprised to find that she shares his talent for deduction, and she becomes both his friend and his apprentice. Later novels upgraded her to wife.
{{bibliography|Appearances}}
As of 2023:
* ''The Beekeeper's Apprentice''. Set between 1915 and 1918, covers Holmes and Russell's first meeting and the three years she spent as his apprentice. Then a mysterious genius starts trying to kill them...
* ''A Monstrous Regiment of Women''. Mary celebrates her 21st birthday (complete with independence from an unpleasant aunt and a large inheritance) by going out on the town. She runs into an old friend who introduces her to the charismatic Margery Childe. Margery runs the New Temple of God, a progressive, intellectual group that fascinates Mary. But somehow, rich young women keep dying and leaving Margery money...
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* ''The Game''. Mycroft Holmes summons his brother and sister-in-law to his rooms late one evening, and informs them that they're going to India to rescue a kidnapped spy. This doesn't strike Mary as particularly unusual until she reads the name on the spy's records--Kimball O'Hara, hero of Rudyard Kipling's book ''Kim''. (She does admit that she's in no position to say "You mean he's REAL?" being married to a man most people consider a figment of an out-of-work doctor's imagination.)
* ''Locked Rooms''. Holmes and Russell are apparently taking the long way home from India (Holmes mentions a three-week stay in Japan, which might be hinting at another flashback book later), and Russell decides to stop in San Francisco, her hometown, to settle the details of her inheritance. Between the odd wording of her father's will, the people who keep trying to kill her and the three family friends who were killed within a few months of the "accident," she soon realizes her family was murdered...
* ''The Language of Bees'' The first part of an arc, it deals with the mystery of a disappearing beehive, and the darker story of the disappearing wife and daughter of Holmes' talented and disturbed artist son, Damien Adler (Irene Adler was his mother). Holmes and Russell explore Damien's dark past, which involves the Shanghai underworld, the London bohemian scene, and a series of sacrifices and suicides that have something to do with a cult called 'the Children of Lights.'
* ''The God of the Hive'' (published April 2010) is the conclusion of the arc introduced in the previous book. Russell and Holmes are trying to make it back to London but they are separated, each are burdened by the proceeding events, they are being pursued and obstacles appear at every turn. Then there's Mycroft's problem.
* ''
* ''Garment of Shadows''
* ''Dreaming Spies''
* ''The Murder of Mary Russell''
* ''Mary Russell's War, and other stories of suspense'' (a collection of short stories)
* ''Island of the Mad''
* ''Riviera Gold''
* ''Castle Shade''
{{franchisetropes}}
* [[Asian Gal
* [[Berserk Button]]: Arthur Conan Doyle's spiritualism, for Holmes. Being a rational, scientific man, he is loath to be associated with what he sees as superstitious nonsense.
* [[The Butler Did It]]: Invoked and lampshaded in the first book during one of the smaller cases.
{{quote|
'''Holmes''': I'm afraid it does happen. }}
* [[Canon
* [[Chessmaster]]: Mycroft. Some of Holmes' plans approach this.
* [[Compressed Vice]]: Russell is shown getting addicted to heroin very quickly thanks to the use of morphine years before after her car crash. While getting over this is a major plot point in Monstrous Regiment it is rarely mentioned after.
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* [[Insufferable Genius]]: Holmes, of course. Russell is usually better.
* [[Kim]]: In ''The Game''
* [[Last-Name Basis]]: Mary Russell and the detective refer to each other as 'Russell' and 'Holmes' respectively. Even after {{spoiler|after they get married}}.
* [[Lawrence of Arabia]]: In ''O, Jerusalem''
* [[Literary Agent Hypothesis]]: King explicitly claims to be one.
** Also applied to the original Holmes stories - apparently Doyle adapted them from Watson's journals, which is why there are some continuity errors. The same goes for Kipling and Kimball O'Hara, except Kipling studied his fictional subject personally.
* [[Married Mai Waifu For Real]]: In ''The Beekeeper's Apprentice'' we are introduced to Mary Russell. It is unrevealed whether her middle name is Sue, but Mary is a Sherlock Holmes fan who runs into the aging detective in Sussex (at a point after where the Conan Doyle stories end). Mary eventually gets a degree in theology and marries Holmes. She is of course written by an author who is a Sherlock Holmes fan with a degree in theology. Played With in that Mary is an [[Author Avatar]] rather than [[Trapped in Another World]].
* [[Master of Disguise]]: Holmes and Russell, though his fame sometimes makes this difficult and it's implied that the townspeople where they live are humouring them
* [[May-December Romance]]: See above--Russell is several decades younger than Holmes.
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* [[Sharp-Dressed Man]]: Holmes always looks fresh and stylish
* [[Sherlock Scan]]: Of course
** Russell demonstrates her credibility to Inspector Lestrade by doing this to one of his officers. She and Holmes do it to each other when they first meet. She's at a disadvantage, though, because she's read all Dr. Watson's books—which leaves her with nothing to deduce.
* [[Sleep Cute]]: Occurs in The Beekeeper's Apprentice, during the [[She Is Not My Girlfriend]] stage of Sherlock Holmes's friendship with Mary Russell, and Watson makes this observation when the two fall asleep in a carriage, leaning against each other.
* [[Snark Knight]]: Holmes
* [[Snark
* [[So What Do We Do Now?]]:
{{quote|
'''Holmes:''' Not always. Just usually.
'''Russell:''' Hence the cocaine?
'''Holmes:''' Hence, as you say, the [[Good Flaws, Bad Flaws|cocaine]]. }}
* [[Thunderbolt Iron]]: In ''The Language Of Bees'', {{spoiler|the [[Big Bad]] has a knife made of meteor-metal that he uses for blood sacrifices}}.
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* [[Viewers Are Geniuses]]: Can be read by everyone, but you miss a lot without a working knowledge of early 20st century life and a large vocabulary, hopefully including some period English slang
* [[Wife Husbandry]]: not ''exactly'', but worth a mention. They meet when Holmes is well beyond fifty and Russell is fifteen. Russell, having just lost her own father, explicitly refers in the narrative to Holmes being a surrogate father.
* [[World War
{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:Mystery Literature]]
▲[[Category:Mary Russell]]
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