Back in 1990, Carole Nelson Douglas’s Good Night, Mr. Holmes presented American opera singer, Irene Adler, and her “Watson,” Penelope Huxleigh (a young former governess). Together, Adler and Huxleigh solve crimes and bamboozle Sherlock Holmes. Holmes tells Watson that Irene Adler was one of four people in the world who outwitted him. Sherlockians will recall Irene Adler plays a big role in “A Scandal in Bohemia.” In Good Night, Mr. Holmes we get to see the story from Adler’s point of view. Critics assert Irene Adler was more than a match for Sherlock Holmes. GRADE: B+
Irene Adler series
Good Night, Mr. Holmes (1990) ISBN 0-312-93210-3
Good Morning Irene, ISBN 0-8125-0949-8 reissued as The Adventuress(1991), ISBN 0-7653-4715-6
Irene at Large, ISBN 0-8125-1702-4 reissued as A Soul of Steel (1992), ISBN 0-7653-4790-3
Irene’s Last Waltz, ISBN 0-8125-1703-2 reissued as Another Scandal in Bohemia (1994), ISBN 0-8125-1702-4
Chapel Noir (2001), ISBN 0-7653-4347-9
Castle Rouge (2002), ISBN 0-7653-4571-4
Femme Fatale (2003), ISBN 0-7653-4594-3
Spider Dance (2004), ISBN 0-7653-4595-1
I started this years ago and I don’t know why. It had a better cover than this one. I didn’t like it. More a romance novel than a mystery novel And if there is anything I dislike more than a mystery being solved by little old ladies or woman and their cats it’s a romance novel.
Steve, you’re right about the romance in GOOD NIGHT, MR. HOLMES. But I enjoyed the character of Irene Adler.
I just read an Adler story by Edward D. Hoch, where an older Adler gets Holmes (and Watson, of course) to come to Canada to help her out. It was “A Scandal in Montreal” and it was one of the better stories in a lesser Hoch collection.
Steve, Douglas also does do a mystery-solving cat series! I won’t be reading either.
Jeff, like you and Steve I’m not a fan of mystery-solving cat stories. But Carol Nelson Douglas does create an interesting character in Irene Adler. I’ll have to read Ed Hoch’s “A Scandal in Montreal.”
My favorite quote is from the late, great Ellen Nehr: “I hate to mention this, but I’m getting pretty darn sick of cutesy cats all over the place. One cat per book is enough; but CATS DON’T TALK, CATS DON’T THINK, and CATS DON’T DETECT!”
Jeff, some cat lovers might argue with Ellen Nehr’s analysis! And, there is an audience for cat-solving mysteries books.
That Midnight Louie series is many years along, and had a wide audience, almost – perhaps more – than. Brawn’s “The Cat Who…” books. There’s an audience for cat mysteries, Crider even wrote a couple.
Bill wrote several cat stories over the years. I read the Cat Crimes collection and the sequels, as well as Braun’s collection of stories. No cat novels, however. I’m a dog person.
When I was getting freebies and selling the ones I didn’t want, the ones allegedly co-authored by Sneaky-Pie Brown were never popular The concept alone makes me want to barf!