Awesome / Mary Russell

• The fact that Mary Russell meets and inspires THE Sherlock Holmes to take her in as an apprentice in the first book. Knowing Holmes' original view of women, that doesn't happen often.
• When she puts Ali in his place by slicing his wrist with a throwing knife. It's the first thing that earns her his respect.
• The Relationship Upgrade.
• A villainous example, but the massive way Moriarty's daughter manages to stay ahead of Holmes. The whole reason he and Russell go to Jerusalem in O Jerusalem is because he knows they're screwed if they stay. It takes months for them to re-group enough to face her, and even then, their ruse ultimately fails. It takes Russell getting shot before they manage to win.
  • And even then, the woman has Holmes and Russell held at gunpoint and is prepared to force Holmes to sign a confession claiming that he ruined Moriarty's reputation out of jealousy (as well as dismissing most of his successes as the work of others he took credit for), only for Holmes to provoke her into making a crucial mistake by proclaiming that her father basically committed suicide by confronting Holmes on Reichenbach.