If you liked The Beekeeper's Apprentice you might want to finish the Mary Russell series or another book by Laurie R. King. Try also these books that bring to mind Sherlock Holmes.

Find these books at your local library or favorite bookstore by using the links to the right.

The seven other novels in the Mary Russell series provide the reader with more insights into the history, character and intelligence of this remarkable heroine. As published, the books do not continue after Beekeeper's Apprentice in chronological order. Thus a reader coming late to the series can choose to read them as published, or as they happen through time. All of the books have both Russell and Holmes adopting at least one disguise each in pursuit of criminal evidence and all include appearances by Dr. Watson, Mrs. Hudson or Mycroft Holmes. In publication date order:

A Monstrous Regiment of Women (1995) finds Mary investigating the mystery surrounding the deaths of rich young women who have come under the influence of a charismatic mystic.

Could a letter exist from Mary Magdalene identifying herself as an apostle of Jesus? Russell and Holmes are drawn into the mystery surrounding A Letter of Mary (1997) when the amateur archeologist who claims to have found the letter is murdered.

Dark, foreboding Devonshire moors is the setting for the next Russell adventure. Fans of Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Hound of the Baskervilles” will find echoes of that frightening tale in The Moor (1998).

O Jerusalem (1999) begins shortly after Beekeeper’s Apprentice concludes with Holmes and Russell smuggled into Palestine disguised as Arabs, entrusted with a highly secretive mission and aided by two British secret agents.

Those same two secret agents show up in Justice Hall (2002). The life of inhabitants of a British stately home are intimately described as Russell goes about solving a mystery that centers on the death of a young soldier during World War I.

Holmes and Russell are off to India in The Game (2004). From the city streets to a Maharajah’s palace as honored guests, the sense of place in this book is stunning, second only to the breathtaking pace of the plotting.

Locked Rooms (2005) begins with the two detectives sailing to San Francisco, and Russell dealing with some troubling issues regarding the house she inherited in the ‘city by the bay’, never realizing that those issues will put her in grave danger as they dredge up painful memories.

The Kate Martinelli series, set in present day San Francisco, starts with:

A Grave Talent. The serial murders of three kindergarten-aged girls test the uncomfortable relationship between a crusty San Francisco detective and his new female partner. Eventually, unforeseen complications involving a remarkable artist's past and an evil stalker's secretive present force the pair into confrontation, and they learn to trust each other.

To Play the Fool continues the series and concerns a homeless man who speaks in verse.

With Child, in which the stepdaughter of Kate's partner goes missing.

Night Work, featuring a vigilante feminist group who are targeting men who abuse children.

The Art of Detection (May 2006) involves Kate in the murder of a Sherlock Holmes fanatic.

Two of her other mysteries are set in the San Juan Islands:

Folly is the story of a psychologically troubled woman who goes to a deserted island to rebuild the house of her great-uncle, a man damaged by his experiences in the Great War. The building of the house forms the paradigm of her rebuilding of her life.

Keeping Watch follows the lives of a man who barely survives the devastation of the Vietnam War, and of a young boy, survivor of a devastating childhood.

A Darker Place features Professor Anne Waverley whose sabbaticals from her university are a bit different: They take her into potentially disastrous religious movements, and into potentially devastating relationships.

Using the pseudonym Leigh Richards, Laurie R. King has published a post-apocalyptic science fiction title.

Califia's Daughters is set in a near-future California where women outnumber men by a dozen or more to one and technology levels are sliding backward. The precious males are protected by their stronger female mates.

Books that bring to mind Sherlock Holmes

The Seven-Per-Cent Solution
by Nicholas Meyer
Two of the world's most brilliant investigators, Sherlock Holmes and Sigmund Freud, join forces to uncover a diabolical conspiracy and to kick Holmes' cocaine addiction.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
by Mark Haddon
A 15-year-old autistic boy turns to his favorite fictional character-Sherlock Holmes-for inspiration in solving the murder of his neighbor's dog.

The Patient's Eyes: the Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes
by David Pirie
A debut novel with Arthur Conan Doyle playing the Watson role to Dr. Joseph Bell, Doyle's real-life mentor and the model for Sherlock Holmes.

Sherlock in Love
by Sena Jeter Naslund
A dispirited Dr. Watson decides to write his late partner's biography, begins receiving death threats, and solves a case that reveals the great love of the great detective's life.

The Hound of the Baskervilles
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
After Sir Charles Baskerville is murdered, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson investigate the eerie tale of a spectral hound that haunts the moors around the Baskerville ancestral home.

The Mandala of Sherlock Holmes: the Adventures of the Great Detective in India and Tibet
by Jamyang Norbu
After his apparent death at the Reichenbach Falls, Holmes flees Professor Moriarty's henchman and spends the "missing years" in India and Tibet as revealed in this account by his traveling companion-a Bengali scholar and spy.

The Italian Secretary: a Further Adventure of Sherlock Holmes
by Caleb Carr
Mycroft Holmes, an advisor to the ailing Queen Victoria, summons his famous brother and Dr. Watson to Holyrood House, the royal palace in Edinburgh, to investigate the puzzling murders of two of the Queen's aides.

A Slight Trick of the Mind
by Mitch Cullin
An elderly Sherlock Holmes lives out his retirement in a remote Sussex farmhouse with a housekeeper and her young son, Roger, who unearths a mystery involving the obsessively private Holmes' secret past.

The Final Solution: a Story of Detection
by Michael Chabon
The former detective, now a beekeeper and identified only as "the old man", is roused out of retirement to solve the case of a mysterious mute boy, his German-speaking parrot, and their connection to a murder.