Showing Good Night, Mr. Holmes by Carole Nelson Douglas

Behold the incomparable Irene Adler - rising opera star and amateur sleuth extraordinaire. In total defiance of the restrictions of Victorian society, this liberated American woman joyfully flaunts her many talents and even outsmarts Sherlock Holmes. Irene finds a life-long friend and chronicler for her adventures in Penelope Huxleigh, a parson's daughter she rescues from the London streets. Leery at first, Nell's respect grows as Irene takes on the recovery of Marie Antoinette's missing zone of diamonds and finds herself pitted against no less an adversary than the venerable Sherlock Holmes.

If you met Irene Adler in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "A Scandal in Bohemia", you know she has the distinction of being the only woman ever to win Holmes' admiration. Patrick Tull's opening cameo as Watson sets the stage for Virginia Leishman's sensible Nell. Leishman's performance is icing on the cake of Carole Nelson Douglas' truly original and endlessly enjoyable account of what really happened between Irene and the King of Bohemia.