Check out The Beekeeper's Apprentice or, On the segregation of the queen by Laurie R. King

Just before World War I, a 14 year old girl is orphaned by a car accident in San Francisco. She is sent to live with her stingy aunt in rural England, and is quite understandably miserable. When Mary Russell is walking across the fields near her home with her nose in a book, she almost stumbles over a man lying in the grass. The gentleman is studying the flight of honeybees, and after a few minutes of awkward conversation, she realizes that this must be the retired detective, Sherlock Holmes. The great man is intrigued by this tall teenage girl who has a quick mind and excellent observational skills, but Holmes is hesitant to befriend a female, since he has long considered the abilities of women inferior to those of men. In spite of his own prejudice, Holmes begins to train Russell (as he calls her) to think logically, notice clues, identify evidence and draw conclusions both about physical proof and human nature. Mentoring Russell also inspires Holmes to abandon his cocaine, which he had been increasingly abusing in his retirement to experience the same intense high of solving crime cases. When an American senator’s daughter is kidnapped and held for ransom, Holmes and Russell go undercover as gypsies to investigate. They survive their first big case together working as partners, but when someone threatens both of their lives, will their friendship survive?
Additional Mary Russell books by Laurie R. King include A Monstrous Regiment of Women, A Letter of Mary, The Moor, O Jerusalem, Justice Hall, The Game and Locked Rooms. Many books in this series are available in large print and audio book format.
Reviewed by Lissa Staley