In 1906, San Francisco was devastated by an earthquake and a raging fire. Mary has claims to bear no memory of the days that turned the fabled streets into hell on earth. Now, with the aid of a hard-boiled young detective named Dashiell Hammett, Russell and Holmes find themselves embroiled in a mystery that leads Mary to discover that even a forgotten past never dies...and it can kill again. "A truly bravura performance with all the magnetic appeal of the best of the original Conan Doyle novels."-The Strand Magazine En route to San Francisco to settle her family's estate, Mary Russell, in the company of husband Sherlock Holmes, falls prey to troubling dreams-and even more troubling behavior. In 1906, when Mary was six, the city was devastated by a catastrophic earthquake. For years Mary has insisted she lived elsewhere at the time. But Holmes knows better. Soon it is clear that whatever unpleasantness Mary wanted to forget hasn't forgotten her. A series of mysterious deaths leads Russell and Holmes from the winding streets of Chinatown to the unspoken secrets of a parent's marriage and the tragic "accident" that Mary alone survived. What Russell discovers is that even a forgotten past never dies . . . and it can kill again.