Black by Gaslight, 3rd Ed [Paperback]

This enjoyable effort involves a titled lesbian detective, a prostitute with a heart of gold and Jack the Ripper. It also includes sly references that any Holmesian will relish - "Dr. Ormond Sacker" and "Sherrinford" Pike are central to the plot (Conan Doyle considered both as names for his characters before wisely deciding on Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes).

While I found that the main characters developed feelings for each other far too quickly for believability, I thought that otherwise they were fully dimensional characters with interesting, if slightly convenient, backstories (the noblewoman with the unconsummated marriage, the educated prostitute forced into her profession by her father's suicide). I also appreciated the author's great attention to historical detail - anyone familiar with 19th century literature will find much to enjoy here.

The story's climax is particularly well-written and exciting. However, the author relies on an unfortunate plot device to bring the tale to its climax - one of the protagonists does something so thoughtless and out of character that it actually is jarring.

Despite its minor flaws, I recommend Black By Gaslight. I cared about the characters, the plot moved briskly, the atmosphere was spot-on, and the ending was satisfying.

I read some of the author's online stories before buying this book and are far from being disappointed about my purchase.
Nene Adams created two very interesting characters who lived in a time when society was shaped through strict rules and women didn't get the credit they deserved because they were 'just' women.
The author's description of this time and of the society is very well drafted. I understand that she has done a lot of research about the background and the language of this time.
And on top of it, the plot concerning the mystery is adding another view of the unsolved 'Jack the Ripper' riddle and is brilliant as well.
In fact, this is a story which triggers the reader's interest about the time of this age as much that I bought a map of the old London to be able to see where the two heroines moved around.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which has it all: it's a history, mystery and love story. And the second book in this series already sits on my nightstand to be enjoyed as well.

Black by Gaslight is one of those books where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The two protagonists, Lina and Rhiannon, are excellently drawn. Both of them, interestingly enough, possess deep flaws that cause them to act against their best interests; as is typical for the Holmes-and-Watson genre dynamic, consulting detective Lina has both the more extraordinary qualities and the deeper flaws and weaknesses, while Rhiannon is the more centered and grounded personality. The Jack-the-Ripper mystery is interesting, particularly in its spin-off details that lead the heroines into the case (I also appreciate the author's note at the beginning stating flatly that Ms. Adams was not going to delve into the field of Ripperology to provide a new theory on the real-life case--something that would have been an intense distraction in a first book in a series). The romance side of things is also well-maintained, with emotional and sexual tension between the heroines running high through their alternate points of view early on, then developing into an open relationship which presents them with different emotional issues. Unlike a previous reviewer, I find Rhiannon's actions provoking the end completely in character and growing naturally out of the relationship issues between herself and Lina, but what annoyed me about it was that the point was never addressed between the two characters when all was said and done.

Where the novel does run into trouble is not in the main story but around the fringes. A subplot concerning the interference of the Political Powers that Be in the case serves little purpose other than to give the heroines a chance to overemote and provide an excuse for why, at the end, the identity of the Ripper is not publicly revealed--it eats pages and is distracting and annoying. The major supporting characters, Sherrinford Pike and Dr. Ormond Sacker (the names are Conan Doyle's "first draft" versions of Holmes and Watson) are just plain irritating. They have sufficiently independent personalities, especially Pike, to clearly not be direct analogues of Holmes and Watson (Pike's antic sense of humor sets him far apart from the icily logical Holmes, among many other things), and yet Ms. Adams does give them both just enough of their literary forbears to make them into a distraction. When the story includes both a solid suspense tale and an involving romance, it does not need to include what amounts to a private game of Spot-The-Holmesian-Reference between author and reader. Things would be better served to simply let Pike be Pike; he's at his best when he and Lina are scoring points off one another in their part-friend, part-mentor/pupil, part-rival relationship. Still, when most of the complaints one can direct against a book are focused on the fringe areas, it is definitely a good sign; Lina and Rhiannon's adventures provide better gaslit suspense than most of the latter-day Holmes pastiches combined with better romance than much of what I've read in the lesbian subgenre.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 6 reviews  4.7 out of 5 stars