"Fantastic historical mystery"

In August 1889 at the Green-wood cemetery in Brooklyn, Irene Adler Norton and her companion Nell Huxleigh look at the gravesite that might be the last resting place of the former's mother. Out of nowhere, Sherlock Holmes appears and directs them to the grave of Eliza Gilbert. Both females assume that Gilbert is most likely Irene's biological mother who gave her up at birth. Further research reveals that Gilbert was Lola Montez, an adventuress who was a mistress of King Ludwig of Bavaria.

With a dead man found on his table, Willie Vanderbilt hires Holmes to investigate who killed the man, who is sending him threatening letters involving gold and jewels, and what is the link between the two. Irene recognizes the corpse as the priest who was giving Lola comfort when she was dying. As their cases interconnect, Holmes finds himself with a new partner, whom he admires for her intelligence, until Irene abruptly vanishes with Vanderbilt's child Consuelo.

Carole Nelson Douglas has written a fantastic historical mystery showcasing the only person to ever outwit the great Holmes, who plays a key supportive role. Told in rotating first person narratives, readers know what thoughts are going through the minds of the protagonists which in turn enable the audience to fully follow the two separate inquiries and know what the intersection means before the two great sleuths do. SPIDER DANCE is an excellent work that emphasizes great detective work with a back drop of the wealthy in the Gilded Age of Manhattan.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted November 29, 2004

Summary

Irene Adler is the beautiful opera singer who bested the best detective in the world, the only woman to ever outwit Sherlock Holmes. She has spent years in self-imposed exile in Europe, in an attempt to reinvent herself and create a new life, because she cannot remember the old one. But now circumstances have forced this diva-turned-detective to investigate a past she doesn't remember--on her home ground. Daredevil reporter Nelly Bly has lured Irene, her faithful chronicler and British parson's daughter Nell Huxleigh, and Holmes himself to America, offering information regarding Irene's parentage. New York City in 1889 proved to be both fascinating and perilous for Irene, and Nelly Bly's information was more harmful than helpful. Because now Irene and her allies--and enemies--must race to follow a deadly trail of hidden personal and political history back in time to the days of the California gold rush, thirty years earlier. They are pursuing the complex and contradictory life story of one of the most notorious women of the nineteenth century, and before the intrigue-ridden quest is over, Irene and Nell will uncover murderous international political conspiracies, lost treasure, and finally... the full, shocking secret of Irene's birth.