RogerBW's Blog

Irene's Last Waltz, Carole Nelson Douglas 09 May 2016

1994 mystery, fourth of Douglas's novels about Irene Adler; here she returns to Prague, to solve a problem for the Queen. Espionage, the Golem, femmes fatales, and really nice dresses ensue. (Retitled as Another Scandal in Bohemia in recent reissue.)

This story separates itself from the Holmes canon: there's no template into which it needs to fit, though it still doesn't contradict anything in the Doyle stories. That didn't work very well in the second book of this series, but here the characters and plot are strong enough to carry the narrative without needing the gimmick.

There are some historical insertions, most obviously Charles Frederick Worth in the later stages of his career, but they aren't as forced as sometimes in previous books. The dialogue is mostly between Irene, her husband Godfrey Norton, and the narrator Nell Huxleigh, and all of their characters are substantially developed. The first half of the book, before the trip to Prague, may seem a little slow, as it's mostly a comedy of manners rather than a mystery… though clues are inserted too.

The plot itself is multiply-stranded, with seamstresses murdered at the House of Worth, the new Queen of Bohemia wondering why her husband has been so comprehensively inattentive to her, and reports of the Golem being seen again in the streets of Prague. The Rothschilds turn up too, as the shadowy figures trying to keep Europe stable.

The mysteries are reasonably subtle: I turned out to have worked out about two-thirds of what was going on, which is more bamboozlement than most mystery writers manage with me, and I never felt the characters were stupid for not having made the leaps that I had.

There's always a sense of the ridiculous, and of fun: Irene's enthusiasm for life carries one over any rough patches. Not for the hard-core mystery reader, but if you don't mind plenty of amusing observations as well as clues and suspects you may enjoy this as I did.

This is the last of the first wave of the series, though it is followed (a few years later) by Chapel Noir.

[Buy this at Amazon] and help support the blog. ["As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases."]

Previous in series: Irene at Large | Series: Irene Adler | Next in series: Chapel Noir

Comments on this post are now closed. If you have particular grounds for adding a late comment, comment on a more recent post quoting the URL of this one.

Search
Archive
Tags 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 3d printing action advent of code aeronautics aikakirja anecdote animation anime army astronomy audio audio tech base commerce battletech beer boardgaming book of the week bookmonth chain of command children chris chronicle church of no redeeming virtues cold war comedy computing contemporary cornish smuggler cosmic encounter coup covid-19 crime crystal cthulhu eternal cycling dead of winter doctor who documentary drama driving drone ecchi economics en garde espionage essen 2015 essen 2016 essen 2017 essen 2018 essen 2019 essen 2022 essen 2023 essen 2024 existential risk falklands war fandom fanfic fantasy feminism film firefly first world war flash point flight simulation food garmin drive gazebo genesys geocaching geodata gin gkp gurps gurps 101 gus harpoon historical history horror hugo 2014 hugo 2015 hugo 2016 hugo 2017 hugo 2018 hugo 2019 hugo 2020 hugo 2021 hugo 2022 hugo 2023 hugo 2024 hugo-nebula reread in brief avoid instrumented life javascript julian simpson julie enfield kickstarter kotlin learn to play leaving earth linux liquor lovecraftiana lua mecha men with beards mpd museum music mystery naval noir non-fiction one for the brow opera parody paul temple perl perl weekly challenge photography podcast politics postscript powers prediction privacy project woolsack pyracantha python quantum rail raku ranting raspberry pi reading reading boardgames social real life restaurant reviews romance rpg a day rpgs ruby rust scala science fiction scythe second world war security shipwreck simutrans smartphone south atlantic war squaddies stationery steampunk stuarts suburbia superheroes suspense television the resistance the weekly challenge thirsty meeples thriller tin soldier torg toys trailers travel type 26 type 31 type 45 vietnam war war wargaming weather wives and sweethearts writing about writing x-wing young adult
Special All book reviews, All film reviews
Produced by aikakirja v0.1