Justice Hall
by Laurie R. King

--Reviewed by Jennifer West

Justice Hall is the latest novel in mystery writer Laurie R. King's "Mary Russell" series. Mary Russell is the wife, believe it or not, of the notable Sherlock Holmes.

Although both Russell and Holmes are prickly characters who do not suffer idiots gladly, the marriage is a happy one and they spend much of their time together traveling through exotic lands in elaborate disguises while solving fiendishly complicated cases.

In this case, Russell and Holmes-are summoned by their loyal friends, Alistair and Maurice Hughenfort, who were met earlier in O Jerusalem disguised as the Bedouin brothers Ali and Mahmoud Hazr. The two detectives are asked to investigate the mystery behind the death of young Gabriel Hughenfort who was executed for cowardice during World War I (known at that time as the Great War of 1918). As everyone who came in contact with Gabriel in the trenches remembers him as being a calm and fearless young man, his ignoble death has haunted his family ever since.

Russell and Holmes want badly to locate another possible heir to the family title, because in doing so they will free their friend Maurice, who after Gabriel's death has become the heir to the title of Duke of Beauville and the imposing English manor house, Justice Hall. Maurice does not want the title, his family's ancestral manse, or any of the responsibilities involved but the responsibilities of being a member of British aristocracy weigh heavily on him and he does not feel he can refuse. He will attempt to live up to the family motto, Justitia fortitude mea est: "Righteousness is my strength." 

As Holmes and Russell continue their investigation they become aware that someone else is also very interested in the line of inheritance, someone who might be responsible for Gabriel's death and might be willing to kill the person next in line.

King describes her characters and Victorian England in loving detail. Justice Hall impresses Russell deeply with its beauty and grandeur, set off by a lovely garden. To Russell it represents a permanence and family history that seems to stretch back to ancient times. But Holmes sees the house, as Alistair and Maurice do, as a burden that denies an individual their own choices in life.
Justice Hall (Bantam Doubleday Dell, 2002) is the sixth book in the Mary Russell Series. Other titles in the series include: The Beekeeper's Apprentice, 0 Jerusalem, The Moor, A Letter Of Mary and A Monstrous Regiment Of Women.

Laurie R. King is a third-generation California where she lives with her family. She has a bachelor's degree in religious studies and a master's degree in Old Testament theology. She is a versatile writer, switching between two series, the Mary Russell books which are set in Victorian England and written in the first-person, and the Kate Martinelli series which is set in the present-day San Francisco Bay area and written in the third person. She also writes "stand alone" novels such as A Darker Place and Folly.

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