2. Douglas has said she likes to work on the “large can vas” of series fiction. What kind of character development does that approach permit? Do you like it? Has television recommitted viewers/readers to the kind of multivolume storytelling common in the nineteenth century, or is the attention span of the twenty-first century too short? Is long-term, committed reading be coming a lost art?
3. Douglas chose to blend humor with adventurous plots. Do comic characters and situations satirize the times, or soften them? Is humor a more effective form of social criticism than rhetoric? What other writers and novelists use this technique, besides George Bernard Shaw and Mark Twain?
4. The novels also present a continuing tension between New World and Old World, America and England and the Continent, artist-tradesman and aristocrat, as well as woman and man. Which characters reflect which camps? How does the tension show itself?
5. Various literary figures appear in the Adler novels, including Oscar Wilde, and most of these historical characters knew each other. Why was this period so rich in writers who founded much modern genre fiction, like Doyle and Stoker? The late nineteenth century produced not only Dracula and Doyle’s Holmes stories and the surviving dinosaurs of The Lost World, but Trilby and Svengali, The Phantom of the Opera, The Prisoner of Zenda, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde among the earliest and most lasting works of science fiction, political intrigue, mystery, and horror. How does Douglas pay homage to this tradition in the plots, characters, and details of the Adler novels?
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Belford, Barbara. Bram Stoker. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996.
Bunson, Matthew E. Encyclopedia Sherlockiana. New York, NY: MacMillan, 1994.
Coleman, Elizabeth Ann. The Opulent Era. New York, NY: The Brooklyn Museum, 1989.
Crow, Duncan. The Victorian Woman. London UK: Cox &Wyman Ltd, 1971.
Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes. Various editions.
Mackay, James. Allan Pinkerton: The Eye Who Never Slept. Edinburgh, Scotland: Mainstream Publishing Co., Ltd., 1996.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
www.carolenelsondouglas.com
Carole Nelson Douglas is the award-winning author of 60 novels in the mystery/thriller, science fiction/fantasy and romance/women’s fiction genres. She currently writes the long-running Midnight Louie, feline PI, cozy-noir mystery series (Catnap, Pussyfoot, Cat on a Blue Monday etc.) and the Delilah Street, Paranormal Investigator, noir urban fantasy series (Dancing with Werewolves) set in imaginative variations of Las Vegas: contemporary and paranormally post-apocalyptic.
Carole was the first author to make a Sherlockian female character, Irene Adler, a series protagonist, with the New York Times Notable Book, Good Night, Mr. Holmes. She has won Lifetime Achievement Awards from RT Book Reviews for Mystery, Suspense and Versatility and was named a Pioneer of Publishing. She’s also won several Cat Writers’ Association first-place Muse Medallions. Carole has e-published (www.wishlist.com) shorter fiction.
A daily newspaper reporter, feature writer and editor in St. Paul, she moved to Fort Worth to write fiction fulltime and was recently inducted into the Texas Literary Hall of Fame.
ALSO BY CAROLE NELSON DOUGLAS
“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, founder of Mystery Scene magazine
The New York Times Notable IRENE ADLER Series
Good Night, Mr. Holmes... The Adventuress... A Soul of Steel... Another Scandal in Bohemia... Chapel Noir and Castle Rouge (Jack the Ripper duology)... Femme Fatale...Spider Dance
The 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 Topaz Tango... Cat in a Sapphire Slipper... Cat in an Ultramarine Scheme... Cat in a Vegas Gold Vendetta... Cat in a White Tie and Tails... Cat in an Alien X-Ray
The DELILAH STREET, Paranormal Investigator series
Dancing with Werewolves... Brimstone Kiss... Vampire Sunrise... Silver Zombie... Virtual Virgin
Table of Contents
AUTHOR’S NOTE
CAST OF CHARACTERS
PRELUDE
CODA
A SCANDAL IN BOHEMIA
READERS GUIDE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ALSO BY THE AUTHOR
www.carolenelsondouglas.com
ALSO BY CAROLE NELSON DOUGLAS
Good Night, Mr. Holmes (A Novel of Suspense featuring Irene Adler and Sherlock Holmes) Page 40