A Monstrous Regiment of Women

A Monstrous Regiment of Women is the second Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes novel by Laurie R. King, published by St. Martin's Press in 1995 as a 326-page book.

The plot begins with a chance reintroduction. Mary is recovering from a visit by relatives when an Oxford friend involves her in the New Temple of God, a charismatic sect led by Margery Childe that combines a feminist reading of Christianity with involvement in the suffrage movement. Mary is curious about the leader rather than committed to the cause.

That curiosity becomes an investigation when members of the movement's wealthy young female volunteers are murdered, and the question the novel raises is whether the New Temple is a front for something worse. The title is taken from John Knox's 1558 tract against female rulers, so the book's subject is the position of women in public life as much as the killings themselves. The sect's hold on its young volunteers is part of what makes the deaths awkward to investigate, since the women it recruits have families who would rather not be asked questions.