6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great story continues, December 12, 2004
This story continues Irene Adler's adventures in gilded-age New York. As Irene seeks closure in the search for her mother, an unknown victim is found crucified on millionaire William K. Vanderbilt's billiard table. The action commences as Irene becomes convinced that the murder and her search are connected.
As with the previous stories in the series, I loved this book. All the usual suspects are present: her devoted friend and companion Nell Huxleigh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, stunt reporter Nellie Bly, and dashing British spy Quentin Stanhope. Irene and the others become enmeshed in mystery and international intrigue stretching back decades to gold-rush California and revolution-torn Bavaria.
Within the story the author ponders religious and political obsession, relationships between mothers and daughters, and the price of independence and individuality in a world that demands conventionality and conformity.
This tale is the eighth in the Irene Adler series. To get the full Irene Adler experience, you could begin with "Goodnight, Mr. Holmes", the first book in the series.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Rereadable Books Well Worth The Price, October 10, 2005
I've just discovered this Irene Adler/Holmes series and I've read 5 of the 8 books as of 2005, and can hardly wait to read more.
Carole Nelson Douglas translates the prose style of Arthur Conan Doyle's day into the modern era with as much elegance as found in the BBC productions of Sherlock Holmes starring Jeremy Brett. I hear Jeremy Brett in every word of Holmes dialogue in these novels.
As the fans of a television show will detail events going on offstage during an episode, Douglas shows us details of Holmes' investigations that would not have seemed pertinent to Conan Doyle as he wrote -- but he might well have been thinking of them. Douglas twangs every Holmsian heartstring with her deft expansion of the Doyle tales.
There is one difference though. Douglas shows us a 21st Century woman in Irene Adler, a woman truly with A Soul of Steel, (as the novel Irene At Large will be retitled with its December 2005 release). This is a woman Doyle could never have written and his readers probably would not have accepted.
But to us, Adler's biography makes her attitude plausible. We can easily believe she bested Sherlock Holmes more than once.
Even if you've never read any Sherlock Holmes -- read the Irene Adler novels.
Spider Dance is very special though. It has come out at the same time that Laurie R. King's new Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes novel Locked Rooms has appeared.
The two novels both focus on an investigation into a dark childhood hidden behind trauma induced blocks. Both are written with precision insight into human psychology. There is much to learn from each of these novels alone, but read in tandem they can be incredibly illuminating.
Mary Russell is searching for the traumatic events of her childhood in San Francisco during the 1906 earthquake, and Irene Adler is investigating her lost childhood memories also starting in California, but during the Gold Rush.
There all similarity ceases, but both novels are 5 star, top notch entries into the Holmes apocrypha.
Here is the list of titles to date for the Irene Adler/Holmes series:
Good Night, Mr. Holmes; The Adventuress; A Soul of Steel which will be a re-titling of Irene At Large due out in December 2005. Then comes Another Scandal in Bohemia; Chapel Noir and its direct sequel, Castle Rouge, then Femme Fatale and the direct sequel Spider Dance.
These are all thick books, about 400 pages each with reasonable size print -- lots of words for the money and all of them definitely worth the price.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Spider Dance Builds a Web of Intrigue in 19th C. New York, March 13, 2005
This is the latest entry in a series of novels based on the fictional character Irene Adler Norton from the Sherlock Holmes story A Scandal In Bohemia. This is also the second volume of a duology that began with Femme Fatale. In this latest volume Irene is in New York City of 1889 and seeking to uncover if her mother is the infamous Lola Montez. If that is not enough, she gets drawn into Holmes' case involving threats to the Vanderbilt family.
Carole Nelson Douglas has a delightful way of blending fictional and historic characters together with her own strong feminist point of view to re-envision the role of women in the nineteenth century. In this particular foray, we see the lives of Lola Montez, Alva and Consuelo Vanderbilt, and reporter Nellie Bly re-examined through the feminist perspective of Irene Adler and her partner in detective work, Nell Huxleigh.
Douglas has also developed a delightful multi-narrator style for revealing her story that mixes entries from various participants into a lively manner of plot evolution. This is offset with "quotes" from various historical sources that introduce each chapter. These two narrative devices are well executed in this particular story.
So take an exciting journey into late 19th century New York and explore the mysteries that Ms. Douglas unfolds. She has an excellent attention to detail and history that brings the subject to life.
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