A Monstrous Regiment of Women is by Laurie R. King and was published in 1995. It is the second in the Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes mystery series. It is the winter of 1920, and Russell is living a complicated double life: heavily into her studies at Oxford, and into both her personal and professional relationships with Holmes. Both Holmes and Russell are aware of their increasing involvement, but neither wants to address the subject. She is also dealing with her approaching 21st birthday, when she will become a wealthy woman, and be rid of her abusive aunt and cousin forever. Russell bumps into Veronica Beaconsfield, an old Oxford acquaintance. Beaconsfield is troubled by her former fiance, Miles Fitzwarren, who returned from the war depressed and with an addiction. Beaconsfield then