Castle Rouge

"Castle Rouge" is the second half of a very, very long novel that begins in "Chapel Noir." You can't read these separately. Just the same, if you're an Irene Adler fan, or are interested in who might really be Jack the Ripper, this two-book novel is one you don't want to miss. See review of "Chapel Noir."

Irene Adler is a character created by Arthur Conan Doyle and the only woman who ever outsmarted his famous detective, Sherlock Holmes. Carole Nelson Douglas has taken Irene and turned her into a detective with her own series of mystery novels. In this book, Castle Rouge, the action picks up from the previous volume Chapel Noir, with Irene seeking out the person or people who have perpetrated Jack the Ripper like murders in Paris a year after the Whitechapel murders in London. She is in desperate pursuit because it appears that her colleague Nell Huxleigh and her husband have been taken by the same culprits. But who are they? In this second volume Irene leaves Paris first for Prague and then a castle in Romania. Who is responsible for this international crime spree? Don't read the Selected Bibliography at the end of the book until you have finished it. You may find a spoiler of a clue there,A long tale that stretches across two large volumes, but the excitement never flags. Highly recommended - a feminist point of view on the Victorian era.

This is the sequel to Chapel Noir, and a great book in and of itself. A interesting suspect for the Ripper. It leaves the reader to stare at the man's rather imposing picture and wonder "Could it have been?" Well...#1 He was alive and kicking during this time period (1888)#2 He is well-known for his hypnotic power over women#3 He is also well-known for his religious fanaticism, which would explain why most Ripperologists find religious or occult symbols in the murder patterns#4 He is now known to have been hopelessly insane#5 By train, as the map in the book shows, it's not that far from Russia to London#6 The murders DID NOT end with Mary Kelly, even in London, and it's easy to see a serial killer like the Ripper repeating himself elsewhere. Ted Bundy is a perfect example.And Pink did turn out to be someone you could rely on in a pinch, n'est c'est pas? Quoth the Raven...

The sequel to Chapel Noir, which I bought instantly upon finishing the first is terriffic! What a twist on the Ripper! And to all of you nay-sayers out there, The Raven has some history.#1. I TOLD you Pink was famous under a pseudonym. She was the perfect companion for Irene in the race to save Nell.#2. This Ripper suspect was definately alive during said time period and proved himself to be both hopelessly insane and perverted sexually, as well as a religious fanatic. It would explain the Chi-Rho patterns that Irene makes of the murders, non? Or other authors of Ripperology's "Masonic Symbols".#3. It would explain where Bram Stoker got the setting and background for "Dracula".#4. Are you so foolish as to think that a serial killer like Jack-the-Ripper having got away with it once wouldn't do it again? Or even that Mary Kelly was his LAST victim? If so, you need to do some research.I liked these volumes so well, I bought the others I didn't have. So, Carole Douglas, my compliments. Quoth the Raven...

This is the sequel to Chapel Noir, and I think the two novels are the only ones ever to set women instead of men on the trail of the world's first notorious slayer of women. And what women they are! Douglas revived opera singer Irene Adler from the Sherlock Holmes story (the only woman to outwit him) as an actress/singer moonlighting as a "private inquiry agent" to make ends meet. An ex-Pinkerton agent in the U.S., Irene turned to serious detection when forced out of her performing career. She is up to outwitting Mr. Holmes again . . . and again, and indeed, Holmes and Irene and her allies are pursuing the Ripper by separate paths that are destined to meet.Irene's allies include her loyal biographer, Nell Huxleigh, a prim Victorian parson's daughter thrown into a world of violent sex crimes with mind-expanding results, and a cheeky American girl found in a Paris brothel when the Ripper seems to have resurfaced in Paris a few months after the Whitechapel atrocities.This is a whole new arena for the Ripper, and the chase in Castle Rouge leads to points east featured earlier in the series, such as legend-haunted Prague, and even farther east into Transylvania. It's no surprise that Dracula author Bram Stoker is along for the ride as both supporter . . . and suspect.Not only does the book offer a whole new perspective on the Ripper murders, but a whole new and intriguing (though fictional) look at why Stoker wrote Dracula. Both old and new characters reveal surprises as they meet challenge after challenge in what becomes, like the end of the novel Dracula itself, a race to rescue some of their own who have fallen into lethal hands. The plot twists and turns, coils and recoils. Quite a ride. Hang on!This is a much darker, complex, and ambitious set of Adler books than Douglas' excellent earlier entries in the series (one was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year), but it's based on historical fact beneath the fictional embellishments and provides a lot of insight on the thinking and even politics of the times. And even some of the series traditional humor shines through, as the very Victorian Nell encounters the worst of the real world in any age, and learns that she can face up to it. I must admit that she's a favorite character of mine, despite and maybe because of her socially inbred primness, and it's a pleasure to watch her grow. She may even be up to getting it on with dashing spy Quentin in future adventures. . . . Their relationship reminds me of the one between unconventional Victorian explorer/adventurer Richard Burton and his tradtional wife. Go, girl, go!