Irene Adler

The Woman was introduced in Arthur Conan Doyle's "A Scandal in Bohemia," which was the first Sherlock Holmes short story and which appeared in the July 1891 issue of The Strand magazine.

The "Irene Adler Mysteries" by Carole Nelson Douglas

Miss Irene Adler, the beautiful American opera singer who once outwitted Sherlock Holmes is here given an unexpected talent: she is a superb detective. Whether intervening on behalf of Oscar Wilde in a delicate mission of the heart, or maneuvering at Bram Stoker’s tea party, Irene's brilliant reasoning powers rarely fail. Only her search for Marie Antoinette’s long-lost Zone of Diamonds seems stymied; her investigation of a royal murder in the Kingdom of Bohemia ends with the apprehension of the villain. She embarks on a duel of wits with the great Holmes and this novels casts an amused female eye on Victorian attitudes and levies gusto, wit, romance, detection, and high adventure.

Good Night, Mr. Holmes

ISBN 0-812-51430-0
Penelope Huxleigh is down on her luck, and she's contemplating joining the lots of the homeless as she wanders the streets of London after being unfairly terminated from her latest job. Unbeknownst to her, she is about to become the victim of a robbery but is spared that fate by the intervention of a beautiful American woman, one who is unlike anyone that Penelope has ever met. The woman, who is named Irene Adler, takes Penelope to her flat and they co-exist as unlikely roommates for several years. Where Penelope, or "Nell" as Irene calls her, is very conservative and Puritanical, Irene is a free-spirited and independent woman. Her greatest goal is to become a renowned opera singer. At times, she accepts investigative commissions.
She is approached by a rich American, a jeweler by the name of Tiffany, who asks her help in locating an item that disappeared many years earlier. It is known as the "Zone of Diamonds" and is a ropelike belt of over 2,000 diamonds. There's not much to go on, other than it seemed to last be in the hands of a man named Norton. Irene zealously searches for information, but ultimately gives up on the case as a lost cause. She is unaware that the same challenge has been presented to another gentleman in the city, a fellow residing at 221B Baker Street known as Sherlock Holmes. He, too, is flummoxed by the investigation.
Irene experiences some success in her musical career and goes off on a tour under the sponsorship of a composer named Dvorak. Her voice seems uniquely suited to some works that are not often performed, and she does quite well. Nell is sorry to see her go, but does quite well on her own, having become an accomplished typist who is now working for a young relative of the aforementioned Norton of the Zone of Diamonds, a barrister by the name of Godfrey Norton. When Irene summons Nell to her side, she goes without question. She finds that Irene is seriously considering marrying the Prince of Bohemia. When Irene unravels a family murder, she unwittingly also unravels the relationship and places herself and Nell in danger.

Good Morning, Irene

ISBN 0-812-50949-8
The deaths of beautiful Irene Adler and her bridegroom, handsome barrister Godfrey Norton, have been widely reported in the English and European press. But the American opera singer who once outwitted Holmes, disappearing with her photograph of the King of Bohemia, is alive and well in Paris, and lapping up her obituaries with unconcealed glee. Nevertheless, although her "death" has ended the royal Bohemian's unwelcome attentions, it is a serious inconvenince: she cannot perform on the operatic stage.
Irene Adler is not a woman for whom idleness holds the slightest appeal. Thus the appearance of Sarah Bernhardt as a new friend is extremely welcome; but the unexpected emergence of a drowned sailor's body from the Seine is even more so.
On the sailor's chest is a tattoo--a tattoo reminiscient of one Irene saw years ago in London, on another sailor's chest, while the corpse lay upon Bram Stoker's dining room table....
She had been unable to decipher the mysterious circumstances of the London death. Now, with a second corpse to consider, she seems to see a pattern. Then a young woman is abducted, and--against her will--tattooed!
The inimitable detecting skills of Irene Adler will be sorely tested by the Machiavellian complexities at hand. Godfrey Norton's unexpected gifts of disguise will be needed, as will the dogged intelligence of Miss Penelope Huxleigh, Irene's faithful chronicler. A large a varied cast--among them the divine Sarah, a green serpent, the first beautiful, blond American Princess of Monaco, a young American journalist, an all-too-attentive Viscount, and Sherlock Holmes himself--will play their roles before Irene unravels the dreadful mystery that confronts her.

Irene at Large

ISBN 0-812-51702-4
Alive and well despite the widely published accounts of her death, the irresistible Irene Adler and her husband, dashing barrister Godfrey Norton, are taking coffee with their friend Nell Huxleigh in a Parisian sidewalk cafe when a stranger dressed in Oriental garb falls at their feet. Surprisingly, it is not Irene's beauty that has felled him, but a dose of poison--and even more surprisingly, the friends learn as he recovers that he is an Englishman! After nine years in Afghanistan, following the disastrous battle of Maiwand, Quentin is on his way to london to find a Dr. Watson who tended his battle wounds, a Dr. Watson whose life may well be in danger. Nell's heart is quickly lost to Quentin, but after a shot through a window, Quentin vanishes. Irene vows to find him, for Nell should not be loved and left. Their search takes them first to a Parisian garret, inhabited only by a dead Lascar and...an indecently large cobra! Although Irene dispatches this scaly miscreant handily with her revolver, the game is indeed aslither. The sinuous chase leads through a command performance for the Empress of All the Russias and two visits to Sarah Bernhardt, into a channel steamer and under the desk of Dr. John H. Watson, loops into 221 B Baker Street, and uncoils deadly secrets both past and present.

Irene's Last Waltz

ISBN 0-812-51703-2
The ever-irresistible Irene Adler, her dashing barrister husband, Godfrey Norton, and the indomitable Miss Nell Huxleigh have arrived at last at their French cottage--having survived (but just barely) the dastardly plots, Russian spies, pistol-wielding criminals...and the occasional cobra.
Our happy trio seek nothing but rest and peace. But Irene has always chafed under idle conditions and Paris, she says, "is pretty and urbane, but hardly a center of excitement." So when Charles Frederick Worth, the Parision King of Courture, invites Irene to become his "mannequin de ville," to wear the fabulous Worth creations to stimulate his trade, Irene leaps at the chance.
But what was a joyous lark soon turns into a journey that can lead to disgrace, dishonor...and death. For Irene, Nell and Godfrey are drawn into a series of events that will compel Irene to the one place that she daren't go--and to the one man she must not confront.

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