O JERUSALEM

Feisty Mary Russell and frosty Sherlock Holmes in a fifth adventure (The Moor, 1998, etc.)—this one retroactive. Under cover of night, the two have been smuggled into British- occupied Palestine to do a job for Mycroft—Mycroft Holmes, that is, the great detective’s older (and some say smarter) brother. It’s 1919, which shoves the Russell-Holmes saga back four years. Full-fledged partnership lies in the future since Mary, at 19, is still wet behind the ears as a ratiocinator. Marriage merely shimmers before them, an outcome with as little substance at this point as a Negev Desert mirage. True, Holmes does like the look of his young apprentice, but he is also twice her age. The why of the backward flip has to do with manuscript material newly available, but what really matters is Mycroft’s mission. It seems that Edmund Allenby—the military hero whose tactical brilliance smashed Turkey’s centuries-long control over Jerusalem—is in danger. Mycroft, a consummate danger-sniffer on behalf of the Commonwealth, is convinced of Allenby’s imminent peril but unable to isolate or better define the circumstances. It’s up to Russell-Holmes to give the threat shape. Which they do, thanks to the help of two remarkable British agents posing as Arabs, but only after numerous setbacks at the hands of fanatical adversaries. One is an unreconstructed Turk, as devious as he is sadistic; another is a villainous Englishman, mistakenly trusted in high places. Will Russell-Holmes repay Mycroft’s faith in them by rising to the challenge? A bit thin as to plot—and sedate as to pace—but Holmes gets to strut his stuff now and again so fans of the series aren—t likely to complain.