Holmes’s eyes narrowed fiercely. “But Irene Adler is not dead—oh, no, Watson, no more likely than that Moriarty did not exist. I would stake my life upon it!”
I sat silent in the face of such wholesale conviction. I had never known Holmes to be wrong when he expressed himself so strongly. As much as logic directed his remarkable detective powers, so too did a knowledge of human behavior, sifted through his inhuman isolation from the softer sensibilities.
“Yet, Holmes,” said I finally, “so many of our cases require delving the deepest emotions in their solving. Perhaps you encounter enough misdirected passions and misunderstood family matters, sudden disgrace and death in your work; you need not import such heartache into your personal affairs.”
“Quite right. Many cases depend upon reasoning back to events of years ago—family secrets, vengeance visited even onto the second generation. In a sense, the past shapes those who become victims or villains in the melodramas of my cases.
“It is my role to act as playwright to the whole, to draw the curtain open and then reveal the scenes in one logical series. Every event must be cobbled into place in the long train of previous events, as rungs make a ladder of logic. I would give a great deal to know what inevitable stages of incident produced the likes of Irene Adler. Show me a method of forming more women so, and I would show more interest in women!”
My eyes wandered to the photograph again. I confess myself stirred by a new admiration for something more intangible in that familiar form than mere surface attractions.
“There is one thing I regret deeply about the Adler case,” Holmes confessed in a lazy drawl.
I held my breath. Had the unthinkable moment finally come when “the woman” would claim her final victory over the great detective’s infallible intellect?
Holmes sighed, his face assuming that state of dreamy concentration I had only observed at the concert hall. There, lost in the swelling orchestral chorus or the soulful aria of the solo instrument, Holmes permitted me to glimpse the stern mathematics of music erecting a bridge of glorious sound between his rigidly separated intellect and emotions.
“I regret,” the great detective mused gloomily, “that I have never heard her sing.”
Disappointed, I watched Holmes raise his glass to the photograph’
“Good night, Miss Irene Adler,” he toasted with a smile that even I could not quite decipher. “Wherever you are.”
MEET CAROLE NELSON DOUGLAS
The author of almost sixty novels—mainstream, mystery, thriller, fantasy, science fiction and women’s fiction—Carole has been nominated for or won more than fifty writing awards. Many of her novels have received starred reviews in established trade journals and many short stories have won awards and been reprinted in “Year’s Best” collections.
She holds RT Book Reviews Lifetime Achievement Awards for Versatility and Mystery writing. The magazine also cited her in its first “Pioneer of Publishing” awards, and she holds numerous Cat Writers’ Association Muse Medallion awards. Her New York Times Notable Book of the Year, Good Night, Mr. Holmes, launched the first mystery/suspense series to feature a Sherlockian woman protagonist, Irene Adler.
Carole currently writes two bestselling series set in a Las Vegas worlds apart: the contemporary Midnight Louie feline PI mysteries (“Remington Steele with two couples and a cat” and an international terrorist subplot) and the Delilah Street, Paranormal Investigator, noir urban fantasies set in a Vegas from Hell in 2013. Carole enjoys mixing adventure, mystery, fantasy, romance, humor and heart with social satire and underlying social issues.
As a journalist covering social issues and the arts, Douglas won many Newspaper Guild of the Twin Cities awards, including for Best Column, and an Honorable Mention in the national Catherine L. O’Brien Award (one of 10 in a field of 2,000), for an article on the destitute elderly.
In college, she was a finalist in Vogue magazine’s long-standing Prix de Paris writing competition for women college seniors (one of 12 in a national field of 2,000), once won by Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis.
A vintage clothing fashionista, Carole also collects homeless cats and dogs and can be found frequenting zumba classes.
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.carolenelsondouglas.com
Blog: http://www.carolenelsondouglas.com/blog
Facebook: www.facebook.com/CaroleNelsonDouglas
Twitter: www.twitter.com/CNDouglasWriter
GoodReads: www.goodreads.com/CaroleNelsonDouglas
Carole Nelson Douglas
. . .writing historical suspense
“A splendidly crafted tale of mystery and murder, horror and humor.”—Anne Perry
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“Douglas cleverly balances tragedy and farce in a gentle mockery of period adventure and a ruthless depiction of all-too-contemporary hatreds.”—Kirkus
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“This is a meaningful, daring feast of a book and I loved it.”—Nancy Pickard
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“a lively historical thriller as well as a smart and faithful extension of the Holmes canon. Irene Alder justly deserves the spotlight Carole Nelson Douglas shines on her.”
—Jane Adams, Amazon.com
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“Atmospheric, gripping, intelligent, and highly entertaining.”—Gayle Lynds
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“These modern scholars of Victorian literature are some cutups!. . . certain of these wits have turned to the historical mystery [to share] the fun of their scholarship. And fun it is. . . when Carole Nelson Douglas purports to tell how Irene Adler outfoxed Sherlock Holmes. . . this enchanting paragon comports herself beautifully on her adventures. . . the author adopts a saucy style and a delicious sense of humor. Both have irresistible appeal.”
—Marilyn Stasio, New York Times on Good Night, Mr. Holmes, a Notable Book of the Year
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. . .writing fantasy
“Douglas is a master of the well-told tale. . . Her large readership will want to see this one on the shelves.”—Roland Green, Booklist
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“Multitalented Douglas layers complexities and moral dilemmas into this series, giving it both action and emotional punch!”—RT Book Reviews on Virtual Virgin
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. . .writing mystery
“Her fine Sherlockian novels. . . and her Midnight Louie books have turned her into a genuine mystery star. Pick one up and you’ll see why.” —Ed Gorman
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“The mystery is strong, sensitive, humorous in parts, and very enlightening. The characters are full-bodied and revealing like no others I have read.”—Mystery News
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“a jam-packed, postmodern-Dickensian series.” —Kirkus
Other titles by CAROLE NELSON DOUGLAS
Midnight Louie feline PI series
Catnap
Pussyfoot
Cat on a Blue Monday
Cat in a Crimson Haze
Cat in a Diamond Dazzle
Cat with an Emerald Eye
Cat in a Flamingo Fedora
Cat in a Golden Garland
Cat on a Hyacinth Hunt
Cat in an Indigo Mood
Cat in a Jeweled Jumpsuit
Cat in a Kiwi Con
Cat in a Leopard Spot
Cat in a Midnight Choir
Cat in a Neon Nightmare
Cat in an Orange Twist
Cat in a Hot Pink Pursuit
Cat in a Quicksilver Caper
Cat in a Red Hot Rage
Cat in a Sapphire Slipper
Cat in a Topaz Tango
Cat in an Ultramarine Scheme
Cat in a Vegas Gold Vendetta
Cat in a White Tie and Tails
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Delilah Street, Paranormal Investigator series
Dancing with Werewolves
Brimstone Kiss
Vampire Sunrise
Silver Zombie
Virtual Virgin
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; Irene Adler suspense series
Good Night, Mr. Holmes
The Adventuress [formerly Good Morning Irene]
A Soul of Steel [formerly Irene at Large]
Another Scandal in Bohemia [formerly Irene’s Last Waltz]
Chapel Noir
Castle Rouge
Femme Fatale
Spider Dance
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Anthologies edited by Carole Nelson Douglas
Marilyn: Shades of Blonde
Midnight Louie’s Pet Detectives
White House Pet Detectives
The Private Wife of Sherlock Holmes (Irene Adler and Sherlock Holmes novella) Page 5