From Amazon.com
Blend Jack the Ripper and Sherlock Holmes with Dracula lore, toss in a copious complement of czarist Russian history, and the result is Carole Nelson Douglas's
Castle Rouge, her grisly but gripping sequel to 2001's
Chapel Noir.
Disaster has struck opera diva-turned-detective Irene Adler Norton. The American adventuress who bested Holmes and thereby won his admiration (in "A Scandal in Bohemia") thought she'd cornered the elusive Ripper on the grounds of the 1889 world's fair in Paris, but instead, he fled to Eastern Europe after kidnapping her friend and biographer, Penelope "Nell" Huxleigh. Now, while Irene--assisted by theatrical manager Bram Stoker, daredevil Yankee reporter Nellie "Pink" Bly, and British spy Quentin Stanhope--sets out for Prague, hoping to rescue Nell, and as Holmes and Dr. John Watson revisit Saucy Jack's earlier homicidal activities in London, Nell finds herself imprisoned, together with Irene's barrister husband, in a crumbling Transylvanian castle, under the malevolent scrutiny of a Russian woman agent and a brutish lust-murderer endowed with hypnotic powers.
Douglas builds considerable intrigue on her way to a surprising solution to the Ripper's identity. Yet it's unfortunate that this sixth Irene Adler yarn focuses more on the prudish Nell and her discomforts as a hostage (no proper corsets-- how shocking!) than on its more intrepid chief protagonist, or even on Pink, whose capacity for audacious exploits was better realized in Chapel Noir. Regrettable, too, is the plot's shift from Paris to the eldritch extremes of Bohemia. Stoker points out that "the region reeks with bizarre legend and folktales," yet Castle Rouge's action takes place well apart from the Gypsy villages that might have provided cultural color. --J. Kingston Pierce
From Publishers Weekly
A direct sequel to Chapel Noir (2001), Douglas's exuberant sixth novel to feature the woman who bested Sherlock Holmes offers a novel theory as to the identity of Jack the Ripper that's sure to provoke controversy among those devoted to the study of the most notorious serial killer of all time. The Ripper's bloody killing spree has apparently spread throughout Europe and may be connected with bizarre, violent sexual rituals performed by mysterious cultists. Adler's husband, as well as her closest confidante, Nell Bly, have disappeared, and the story alternates among various perspectives: Dr. Watson's, Nell's and that of an unknown figure whose identity is revealed only at the end. Holmes and Adler pursue separate lines of inquiry, but are off-stage for much of the book, leaving the annoying Nell, a fainting, repressed damsel in distress, as the most dominant voice. The frequent changes in locale from England and France to Bohemia and Transylvania, with each country vividly portrayed, help to speed along the plot. Dracula fans will be pleased to find Bram Stoker playing a role. Clich‚s such as "filthy minions" and a shortage of meaningful detection may put off some readers, but those who relish lots of action, including chases and close calls, will feel amply rewarded. and other titles in her Midnight Louie mystery series.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
