Related to Sherlock Holmes?

Garment of Shadows: A novel of suspense featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes   by Laurie King

You really can't claim this is a Sherlock Holmes novel, because Mary Russell is the primary protaganist.  Sherlock unfortunately takes a backseat to his wife in this story, which is part of the Mary Russell Mystery Series.  To quote from a Publishers Weekly review,  "(this is definitely Mary’s story; Holmes functions more or less as her very able sidekick)". 

I did read the first novel in Laurie King's series, entitled The Beekeeper's Apprentice, which was much more enjoyable than this latest novel in the series.  Probably because Sherlock Holmes played a more prominent role in that first book in the series.  Since that first book, a romantic attraction obviously developed between Mary Russell and Sherlock, because they are now married in this edition.  I confess I have not kept up with this series, so maybe I would have enjoyed this issue more if I had read more of the Laurie King novels which preceded this one.

Garment of Shadows includes none of the usual entries in which Holmes displays his amazing powers of observation and deduction.  Too bad, because that is what makes Sherlock Holmes stories so enjoyable.  The reviews of this novel do claim that King takes a different tact with her storyline, incorporating real historical events and characters, while Russell and Holmes seem to play a bit of a periphery role, until the climax, when they expose the spy within the household of Morocco's French Resident General Maréchal Louis Hubert Gonzalve Lyautey, who is a real historical figure.  The plot of this novel also deals with real historical events between the French, Spanish and the local Rifi Republic, who would like to control their own country without the imperial powers of France and Spain involved.

Kirkus Reviews sums up this latest Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes' novel accurately with, "Both Holmes and Russell are muffled, and the story requires a good deal of potted history. More likely to appeal to lovers of Morocco than lovers of Sherlock Holmes."