1992 mystery, third of Douglas's novels about Irene Adler. In Paris in
1888, a stranger in Oriental garb falls poisoned at the feet of
Irene's narrator, Nell Huxleigh. But why does he claim to know her?
(Retitled A Soul of Steel in recent reissue.)
The man turns out to have been a British spy in Afghanistan, at
the time of the disastrous battle of Maiwand and the retreat of
British forces to Kandahar. And, of course, one Doctor Watson turns
out to be in danger as someone tries to get rid of anyone who might
have inconvenient recollections.
This book ties itself rather more closely to the Holmes canon than the
previous one, and I think it's an improvement. Rather than a fresh
tranche of historical figures, we get a smaller number of invented
ones, and they're rather more lively. The curious double wounding of
Dr Watson becomes a central point, Colonel Sebastian Moran plays a
significant role, and sections of this book wrap round The Adventure
of the Naval Treaty.
But mostly it's detective adventure of the "what fun" school, with
someone using cobras as a (remarkably ineffective) murder weapon,
Irene's taste for doing the dramatic thing especially when it's not
the sensible thing, and her endless disguises.
"If I am to shoot a cobra, which I really do not wish to do unless it
is a matter of self-defense, I certainly would not want to do it in a
drawing room. No. A garret in Montmartre provides the proper artistic
ambience.
There's also a romance of sorts for Nell, though clearly neither party
is going to do anything about it unless pushed hard.
"Do you mean to say that you two ladies were alone in my Montmartre
quarters with a cobra and a dying man?"
"He was dead by the time we arrived, Quentin," I assured him. "It was
perfectly proper."
Sherlock Holmes comes into the story, but more as a force of nature
than as a character (which is fair enough, since that's how Doyle
usually wrote him); it's Watson who gets some expansion from his usual
simple role as uncomprehending foil. He is both a doctor and an old
soldier, and both of those attributes are significant here in a way
they often aren't in Doyle's own work.
This is definitely a step up from the second volume, with a renewed
vigour and sense of enjoyment. Followed by Irene's Last Waltz.
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