Mary Russell

Mary Russell is the narrator of the novel. Mary Russell is also the female version of Russell. Russell is Mary's alter-ego or disguise as a young man so that she can work on cases with Sherlock Holmes. When the novel opens, Mary has just finished her last paper for her degree and she is about one week away from turning 21.

Mary Russell attends Oxford University. At Oxford, she is studying religion and chemistry. Mary also has a strong interest in the women's rights' movement, otherwise known as the suffrage movement. It is her interest in the suffrage movement that initially draws Mary to the organizations that Margery Childe runs to help women.

When Mary turns 21, she receives her inheritance. Mary lost her mother, father and younger brother in a car accident six years before the novel opens. Mary's aunt is her guardian and living with Mary in...