A Soul of Steel (A Novel of Suspense featuring Irene Adler and Sherlock Holmes)

Table of Contents

AUTHOR’S NOTE

CAST OF CONTINUING CHARACTERS

FOREWORD

THE NAVAL TREATY

READERS GUIDE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ALSO BY THIS AUTHOR

Praise for A SOUL OF STEEL

 “An absolutely ripping adventure, [with] a color and texture which will give you a vivid sense of 'being there,' and time spent with unique and immensely enjoyable people.”—
ANNE PERRY,
 
New York Times
bestselling author of
A SUNLESS SEA

“Setting herself the task of creating a heroine worthy of Sherlock Holmes, Douglas succeeds smashingly. Narrated with credible Victorian style and sensibility by Penelope ‘Nell’ Huxleigh, this lively caper establishes Adler’s sleuthing skills... A truly original perspective of the one whom the great detective himself dubbed ‘the woman.’ She’s a superior woman at that: readers will doff their deerstalkers.”—
Publishers Weekly

“Douglas has made Adler a superb detective and invented a perfectly delightful—and perfectly puzzling—series of cases for her.”—
The Fort Worth Press

“Douglas has penned a delightful romp in this [third] Victorian adventure novel about the only woman Sherlock Holmes ever admired, and indeed she lives up to the honor.”—
Publishers Weekly

“A hundred years from now, readers will still be raving about the world's greatest detective, but for many the name on their lips may very well be Adler instead of Holmes.”—
RT Book Reviews

“Holmes and Irene do their most charming (if in Holmes's case, unwitting) work together.”—
Kirkus Reviews

IRENE ADLER ADVENTURES:

Good Night, Mr. Holmes

The Adventuress
*
(formerly
Good Morning, Irene
)

A Soul of Steel
*
(formerly
(Irene at Large
)
Another Scandal in Bohemia
*
(formerly
Irene’s Last Waltz
)
Chapel Noir

Castle Rouge

Femme Fatale

Spider Dance

SHORTER FICTION

The Private Wife of Sherlock Holmes

*These are revised editions

A SOUL OF STEEL

A novel of suspense featuring Irene Adler and Sherlock Holmes

by

CAROLE NELSON DOUGLAS

www.carolenelsondouglas.com

AUTHOR’S NOTE
:
This eBook contains minor material not in the original hardcover and paperback editions of this novel. The title was changed because another publisher started using confusingly similar titles to mine.
A Soul of Steel
is the third novel about Irene Adler, the only woman to outwit the great detective, and has never been published in eBook, so I’m delighted to be able to make it available again. I hope you enjoy this novel—as well as the next five novels featuring Irene Adler’s detecting career and future encounters with Sherlock Holmes, and various Adler novellas. A Reader’s Guide for discussion groups is at the end of this eBook. Thanks for your interest and support.
—Carole Nelson Douglas

Copyright

A Soul of Steel

Copyright 1992, formerly published as Irene at Large

First Kindle edition Copyright October 2012 Carole Nelson Douglas

eBook published by Wishlist Publishing

Proofreader: Pat Martin

Images Copyright iStock.com

Cover design and cameo: Jennifer Waddell Null

Irene Adler silhouette Copyright 1990 by Carole Nelson Douglas

Author photo Copyright 2010 by Sam Douglas

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

The copying, reproduction, and distribution of this eBook via any means without permission of the author is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and refuse to participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s intellectual rights are appreciated.

A WISHLIST B00K

http://www.wishlistpublishing.com

“She has a soul of steel... the face of the most beautiful of women and the mind of the most resolute of men.”

For Richard Adcock, a good friend

who knew everything about computers and writers

and made them both work

CAST OF CONTINUING CHARACTERS

IRENE ADLER:
an American opera singer abroad, introduced in the first of Sir Arthur Conan’s Doyle’s sixty Sherlock Holmes stories, “A Scandal in Bohemia,” now the diva/detective protagonist of her own adventures, beginning with the
New York Times
Notable Book of the Year,
Good Night, Mr. Holmes

SHERLOCK HOLMES
:
the London consulting detective with a global reputation for feats of deduction

GODFREY NORTON
:
the British barrister who married Irene just before they escaped to Paris to elude Holmes and the King of Bohemia

PENELOPE “NELL” HUXLEIGH
:
the orphaned British parson’s daughter Irene rescued from poverty in London in 1881, a former governess and “type-writer girl” who lived with Irene and worked for Godfrey before the pair were married, and who now resides with them in Paris

JOHN H. WATSON, M.D.
:
 
British medical man and
Afghanistan war veteran of the Battle of Maiwand; Sherlock Holmes’s sometimes roommate and frequent companion in crime-solving