Showcase Presents: Green Arrow, Vol. 1

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Showcase Presents The Green Arrow, Vol. 1 is an ambitious 500+-page compilation of the Emerald Archer's early exploits. Beginning in 1958, Green Arrow appeared in both Adventure Comics and World's Finest, in six-page stories that sold Oliver Queen as a half-baked Batman, answering the Arrow Signal in his Arrow-Car with his ward, Roy Harper (Speedy). The main challenges were figuring out which combination of trick arrows would do the job (one adventure required the Two-Stage Rocket Arrow, the Balloon Arrow, the Firecracker Arrow and the Dry-Ice Arrow, and don't forget about that ever-handy Fake-Uranium Arrow!), or what crazy contraption a villain could think of to foil the archers. Creators include Dave Wood, Ed Herron, France Herron, Robert Bernstein, Lee Elias, and a pre-Marvel Jack Kirby (aided by wife Roz), whose influence put a significant sci-fi twist on the title. But for the most part, the stories are pretty routine, broken by the occasional twist of "The Unmasked Archers" or "The Green Arrow's First Case," which bring out a little more of the characters, or even the appearances of Miss Arrowette, who fights crime with her Powder Puff Arrow and Mascara Arrow. More interesting are the longer adventures, including Superboy's early meeting of Oliver Queen in Smallville, GA's induction into the Justice League, and his appearances in The Brave and the Bold when that comic was becoming a team-up vehicle. In B&B 50, he teams up with the Martian Manhunter, and in #71 with Batman. Fourteen issues and a year and a half later, but what seems like light years stylistically, Green Arrow teams up with Batman again in "The Senator's Been Shot," a Bob Haney-Neal Adams tale that has both heroes questioning the value of their heroic identities. DC's Showcase line, like Marvel's Essentials line, offers great value, and for this vintage of comics, the black-and-white format is just fine. --David Horiuchi

Book Description

Showcase Presents The Green Arrow, Vol. 1 is an ambitious 500+-page compilation of the Emerald Archer's early exploits.Beginning in 1958, Green Arrow appeared in both Adventure Comics and World's Finest, in six-page stories that sold Oliver Queen as a half-baked Batman, answering the Arrow Signal in his Arrow-Car with his ward, Roy Harper (Speedy).The main challenges were figuring out which combination of trick arrows would do the job (one adventure required the Two-Stage Rocket Arrow, the Balloon Arrow, the Firecracker Arrow and the Dry-Ice Arrow, and don't forget about that ever-handy Fake-Uranium Arrow!), or what crazy contraption a villain could think of to foil the archers.Creators include Dave Wood, Ed Herron, France Herron, Robert Bernstein, Lee Elias, and a pre-Marvel Jack Kirby (aided by wife Roz), whose influence put a significant sci-fi twist on the title.But for the most part, the stories are pretty routine, broken by the occasional twist of "The Unmasked Archers" or "The Green Arrow's First Case," which bring out a little more of the characters, or even the appearances of Miss Arrowette, who fights crime with her Powder Puff Arrow and Mascara Arrow.More interesting are the longer adventures, including Superboy's early meeting of Oliver Queen in Smallville, GA's induction into the Justice League, and his appearances in The Brave and the Bold when that comic was becoming a team-up vehicle.In BB 50, he teams up with the Martian Manhunter, and in #71 with Batman.Fourteen issues and a year and a half later, but what seems like light years stylistically, Green Arrow teams up with Batman again in "The Senator's Been Shot," a Bob Haney-Neal Adams tale that has both heroes questioning the value of their heroic identities.DC's Showcase line, like Marvel's Essentials line, offers great value, and for this vintage of comics, the black-and-white format is just fine.--David Horiuchi

Customer Reviews:

Great comics at greatest prize.......2006-11-04

Great comics with very-difficult-to-find material, in a phone-book size very useful for those afternoons in which you have a lot of spare time and want to review old material about your favourite character. Includes the Kirby material. I'm still enjoying it. If you are a Green Arrow fan, then you MUST buy it.
Besides, i'm spanish and i live in Spain. I have to say that the package arrived the day they told me and i had no problem with it. If you're foreigner, don't fear to buy here. ;)

SILVER AGE TREASURE TROVE.......2006-04-11

Green Arrow is probably one of those characters who is always destined to be a bit of a second banana to more popular heroes. He's been around since making his debut in More Fun Comics in 1941, and unlike some of the other heroes (flash, Green Lantern) the Golden age and Silver Age Green Arrow were both named Oliver Queen. This latest edition of Showcase Presents concentrates on the Silver Age Green Arrow who made his first appearance in the pages of Adventure Comics # 250 as a back-up feature to Superman. This book reprints several dozen Green Arrow stories from the pages of Adventure Comics, Worlds Finest Comics, and The Brave and the Bold. Most of the stories are only 6 - 8 pages in length and involve Green Arrow and his sidekick Speedy tracking down some sort of two-bit criminal with their wide array of trick arrows.

A few things are interesting about the character right off the bat...First, the writers were doing their best to make Green Arrow and Speedy into another Batman and Robin. Both Oliver Queen and Bruce Wayne are wealthy, [...]types with young wards who come under their guidance. Green Arrow had his Arrow Car, Arrow Plane, his secret Arrow Cave hideout, and the police even had their own Arrow Signal to contact GA when there was trouble. Unfortunately what Green Arrow didn't have his writers like Bob Kane or classic villains like the Joker or the Riddler. One thing that these early Silver Age stories did have going for them is the art of Jack Kirby. Now Kirby fans might be a bit disappointed as this is not Kirby at his finest. It's not close to what fans are used to from his 1960's period. There could be a couple of reasons for this...First he probably didn't have an inker as strong as Joe Sinnott, second, and more likely, was the fact that in the 50's DC's editors really didn't encourage a lot of artistic style from their artists. They wanted books finished quickly and Kirby could crank out the pages as fast as anyone. Lee Elias took over the art chores after Kirby left and did a commendable jog. He was unspectacular but steady.

Most of these tales were written by Ed Herron or Robert Bernstein, a couple of guys kind of lost in the annals of comic lore although Herron is somewhat famous as the creator of Captain Marvel Jr. in 1941 for Fawcett Comics. As mentioned, Green Arrow and Speedy fight crime with a variety of outlandish trick arrows including: rope arrows, short circuit arrows, aqualung arrows, fire cracker arrows, harpoon arrows, glue arrows, buzz saw arrows, and many, many more. I think my favorite is the dry ice arrow. And then there is his villains which are not exactly the Flash's Rogues Gallery...Mighty Mr. Miniature, Phantom Bandit, Camouflage King, The Pneumatic Man, and the Spectrum Man. There are also a large number of Sci-Fi style elements with the pair battling a giant mechanical Octopus and a robotic archer that fires rapid-fire arrows, as well as numerous alien threats. You had to love the 50's!

While most of these stories are throwaway quickies, there are a few notable stories. "Green Arrow's First Case" from Adventure #256 tells the story of GA's origin. "World's Worst Archer" from Adventure #262 relates how GA first met Roy Harper and took him on as his ward and sidekick. Another important story from a historical sense is from Justice League of America #4 where Green Arrow is elected to membership in the JLA. In a story from Brave & the Bold #85 Green Arrow teams with Batman to track down a man who tried to kill a Senator. This story features a cover and art by Neal Adams and it may be the first time Green Arrow sported his now trademark goatee. At least when Batman sees him he says that he didn't recognize him at first.

This is a welcome edition to the Showcase Presents series which, along with the House of Mystery and Jonah Hex editions is reprinting material that has not been seen in decades. Pure silver age fun and excitement!

Reviewed by Tim Janson

The history of DC's resident archer! The legendary Kirby and Elias runs are both represented!.......2006-03-19

A couple of things have to be said about "Showcase Presents: Green Arrow Vol. 1":

First off, the creative selling point is the artwork! Herein is some solid early Jack Kirby work (his entire late-fifties run of Green Arrow stories, complete with an origin story), three clean George Papp stories drawn 11 years apart, one Neal Adams classic that probably ranks among DC's 10 most reprinted stories ever, some representative work by greats like Mike Sekowsky, Carmine Infantino and George Roussos, and a lot of really fine work in between by Lee Elias, an underrated artist whose classic style is perfectly in the mold of the early silver age. If you're unfamiliar with Elias' clean, charming style, just click on the Amazon picture of the cover for a sample, which was inked for publication by modern great Jerry Ordway. Elias was most famous for creating the Golden Age heroine "the Black Cat" in the forties. When that work showed up as alleged evidence of comics being corrupting to kids during the infamous fifties Congressional hearings, Elias left the profession for several years, returning just in time to take part in the Silver Age with these stories! His well-drawn Green Arrow stories became a mainstay at DC in the sixties. The work is especially noteworthy because its great despite seemingly playing against Elias' greatest strength: drawing attractive women (his "Miss Arrowette" is certainly a cutie in her few appearances). This goes to show the extent of his talent. Elias was truly a consumate pro who could draw anything while producing the highest-quality results on a consistent basis! On Green Arrow, he did the seemingly impossible: his art on the character outshined that of Jack Kirby (though some of the scripts for the Elias issues weren't quite as good as the one's Kirby drew, but that's another matter - France Herron wrote many of these stories, but there were a lot of other writers revolving in and out as well, with varying results).

Secondly, I really meant it when I said there's a LOT of stories. This volume is well over 500 pages, and most of the stories run only 6 or 7 pages long. Just the table of contents takes up four pages. Moreso than most comics, this volume is perfect for "stop and go" reading. You can easily pick it up for five or ten minutes and read a quick story, then put it down until later!

Most of those very short stories aren't capable of delving that deep, simply because there wasn't enough room to do it. However, the stories find other ways to be interesting. On his issues, Kirby clearly influences the writing and displays the same kind of storytelling that later dominated Marvel's first several years (fantastical sci-fi plots, emphasis on "can-do" characterization as opposed to the later "angst" characterization Stan Lee added as his primary contribution to Kirby's Marvel heroes). For a student of Kirby, it's actually quite informative to read these tales and then immediately transition to the first year of Fantastic Four and Avengers. The big difference here is that these "Green Arrow" stories were written as backups to other features that headlined the books. They filled out issues of Adventure Comics behind Superboy lead stories and Worlds Finest Comics behind Superman/Batman stories. It's impressive that GA had stories in BOTH books simultaneously, but they were still backups. They weren't designed to carry the book, but rather to provide a little extra entertainment. These stories were the "dessert" instead of the "entree". And that's not necessarily a bad thing.

One other aspect of this volume is the way it allows the reader to follow GA's evolution (one that was a bit jarring) from clean-cut millionaire adventurer in the Bruce Wayne mode to the down-on-his-luck, bearded liberal mouthpiece of the DCU. It had never really occurred to me just how much DC changed their resident archer when they revamped him in the seventies, but really, they didn't keep much of the original character at all. The Ollie Queen in the last story is not at all the same character that appeared in all the other stories. Both versions are completely valid and have their place, so I'm not knocking DC for the change (the new costume, in particular, was inspired - Adams' best design ever!). It's just that in this format, the degree of the change is more noticeable. But then, that historical context is yet another selling point for the book!

Recommended.

Showcase Presents: Green Arrow, Vol. 1 .......2006-02-25

Similar to the marvel essentials same format big books in black and white.This volume include
ADVENTURE COMICS 250- 269 - 1958 to 1960
THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD 50,71,85- 1963 TO 1969
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA 4- 1961
WORLDS FINEST COMICS 95-134,136,138,140-1958 TO 1962

Book Description

The author of the New York Times bestseller The Time Traveler's Wife returns with another evocative “novel in pictures,” the much-anticipated follow-up to 2005's The Three Incestuous Sisters. The Adventuress follows the dreamlike journey of an alchemist's daughter. After she is kidnapped by a lascivious baron, she turns herself into a moth and flees to the garden of a charming butterfly collector named Napoleon Bonaparte. The story of how the two become lovers, and how their affair ends in tragedy and transcendence, is told through Niffenegger's spare prose and haunting aquatint etchings. With a stunning and distinctive visual style reminiscent of the work of Edward Gorey, this gothic romance packs the emotional heft of the world's great fairy tales. It will delight fans of the author's previous works and enchant an entirely new legion of readers.

Customer Reviews:

Another Gorgeous Publication.......2007-07-24

Another gorgeous publication. I just wish the author would follow up with another wonderful story like Time Traveler's Wife. Something I can really sink my mind into.

I love it - I think.......2007-06-22

Niffenegger appears to be publishing her work in reverse order - this offering includes ideas developed from her art-school sketchbooks. Maybe this author's "Time Traveler's Wife" was more autobiographical than she's letting on.

It's not another "Wife," though. It more closely resembles her "Three Incestuous Sisters." Like the "Sisters," it's a Gorey-esque series of images, one per two-page spread, with just a few words on the facing page. And, even more than the "Sisters," it baffles the reader with dream-like transitions that defy normal logic.

The imagery is what counts here. It appears to be a sequence of aquatints with line etching, a printmaking technique that looks a little like pen drawing with solid color washes. The un-named heroine of this story is an elfin young woman with short hair and missing shirt. As with Gorey, it's a style that will catch your eye or won't, and a story (I think it's a story) that will catch you imagination or won't. I'm caught, partly because of the charm of the story and art, and partly because my mind can't let go of the mystery and ambiguity in them.

-- wiredweird

A woman gives birth to a cat...what more could you want from a book?!.......2007-06-10

"The Adventuress" is another one of Audrey Niffenegger's picture novels. This particular book was created during the mid-80's when Niffenegger was a student at The Art Institute of Chicago. The story follows the life of an alchemist's daughter who is kidnapped by an evil, salacious baron. She kills the baron and is imprisoned, but she manages to escape by turning into a moth and flying into Napoleon Bonaparte's garden. The two become lovers, and the alchemist's daughter becomes pregnant and gives birth to Maurice...a cat. Ultimately, the affair between Napoleon and the Adventuress meets a tragic end because of Napoleon's betrayal, but the story manages to end on a positive note.

I really loved this book. It has a very similar feel as "The Three Incestuous Sisters," which is the other picture book that Niffenegger has released. There are very few words to the story, but the entire tale can be absorbed just by looking at the amazing images. I understand why other reviewers compare Niffenegger's work to that of Edward Gorey, but in my opinion, Niffenegger's images evoke much more emotion and passion than Gorey's ever did. I also want to mention how lovely the actual book itself is: the paper is absolutely gorgeous and the book is bound in lush dark green velvet. Lovers of fine art will appreciate this book, as will anyone else who takes pleasure in beautiful things.

Visually appealing, but not great fiction.......2007-04-10

As others have noted, if you buy this book with the expectation that the story will be even an ounce as compelling as The Time Traveler's Wife, you will be disappointed. I gave this book 2 stars for the quality. As picture novels go, it is given the royal print quality treatment. However, I was underwhelemed by the illustrations and storyline. I know it was written years ago and I like that it was dusted off and resurrected, but it just didn't draw me in. Pardon the pun ;)

A novel in pictures.......2007-01-19

Don't buy The Adventuress hoping to have the same sense of wonderment and awe that you felt when you finished The Time Traveler's Wife. It isn't that sort of book.

The Adventuress is the second of Niffenegger's picture novels (that were mass produced at least. The first being the Three Incestuous Sisters), but it's the first one she wrote. In a footnote at the end of the book, she says it was made between 1983 and 1985 when she was a student at the Art Institute of Chicago.

The book is beautifully bound, the pictures are amazing. Some of them I'd be tempted to cut out and frame if it wouldn't ruin the book. In the epilogue, she describes the process it takes to create these images and thanks the people who taught her the technique.

The story, itself, isn't much of a story so much as words that take you through the story the pictures tell. The art itself is the story, so if the words she wrote before in her amazingly successful novel The Time Traveler's Wife are what drew you to this story, prepare to be disappointed.

But if you want to see inside the mind of an artist, who can write as well as create, I think you'll be impressed. I didn't know what to expect, but knew that I liked her work and this book was a pleasant surprise. The Adventuress is indeed an adventure for those who have never seen the work of a visual artist in which the pictures themselves are the story. It isn't a graphic novel. The words are there to enhance the images, but the pictures themselves are the star.

I don't know what to tell you, but to pick it up and take a look. You could read it in 15 minutes at Barnes and Noble and know whether or not you wanted to take the chance and buy it. Myself, I'll probably keep it out as coffee table book, because it would be a shame for her art to be hidden on a bookshelf.

The Adventuress of Henrietta Street (Doctor Who)

Average customer rating:

DEFIES THE READER TO READ IT
forced to read due to being a follower of the series
What a mess!
900 Doctor Who fans can't be wrong
Knowledge isn't always painless...

The Adventuress of Henrietta Street (Doctor Who)
Lawrence Miles
Manufacturer: BBC Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Doctor Who | Media | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0563538422

Customer Reviews:

DEFIES THE READER TO READ IT.......2005-09-18

WARNING: Reading this book may induce flashbacks to the worst history books your teacher ever forced you to read in high school!

This "novel" is written as one of those dull, dry, historical texts and as such keeps the reader detached from the characters. There's little dialogue and the prose is written in complete exposition--that is, it tells but doesn't show. Add in the extremely small print, and you've got a book that begs "Don't read me!" Unless you're a die-hard DOCTOR WHO fan AND a devoted follower of the book series, you'll probably answer it by shrugging your shoulders and saying, "Okay, I won't."

Things happen in the book that will directly effect the storylines of subsequent Eighth Doctor novels, and that is the ONLY reason anyone should even ATTEMPT to read this book. And even at that, you might want to first try searching the web for any blogs that sum up those events so that you can pass on this dreadful, dreadful book.

forced to read due to being a follower of the series.......2004-03-17

OH MY GOD what a tiring piece of work that fails on so many levels. I've just finished it and still have know idea what the point was and the only reason I even finished it was hoping there would be an actual point to it and actually I am a follower of the series and figured what happened may have later (im)pertinence to the series. As one other reviewer said not since the new adventures was there a more "dense" book. Pretentious more like. I usually can't wait to finish the Doctor Who BBS series novels however this one simply dragged on and on and on and had to force myself to finish. Unless you're a Doctor Who completist DO NOT WASTE A MINUTE ON THIS BOOK.

What a mess!.......2003-03-26

This book is very ambitious, unfortunately the author does not demonstrate the skill to pull it off. The fundamental flaw is quite basic, in fact violates the first guideline of modern fiction writing that anyone should learn: show, don't tell. This novel is mostly exposition, keeping the reader at a distance from the story and somewhat disallowing real characterization or clarity of action. Doubly frustrating, many important events in the story are deliberately clouded by the author. Interestingly, neophyte authors of science fiction and horror frequently attempt this type of story, pieced together through journals and records, because they like DRACULA so much (which doesn't, however, stand as an example of modern fiction).

The second error in this book, again frequently made by neophyte writers, is the use of symbolism. The story is driven by symbolism, which is something that rarely works. The author explicitly tells us that the beasts in the story are symbols, and the actions taken to fight them are symbolic. The Doctor's illness (and the resolution of it), the TARDIS, the city of the beasts, etc. are all physical manifestations of symbolism. This is not good fiction. Symbolism should serve to enhance the story, not to serve as the premise. What we are left with is a bit mess that doesn't make any sense.

This was my first pick of this series, recently discovering that the BBC was publishing these Doctor Who novels. At first I was taken aback at how things had changed, but now I am intrigued at the overall story, and consider that it is in line with the Doctor Who tradition. Unfortunately, it appears that many of the books preceding this story are either out of print or hard to find in the U.S. I'll be looking for them, though - somewhat in line with the overall experience of Doctor Who as an American: catch it when you can and work to keep up. Anyway, kudos to the BBC and author to keeping it up and taking some risks with the storyline.

900 Doctor Who fans can't be wrong.......2002-10-23

Here's a loaded statement: if you're a "Doctor Who" fan, you will love "The Adventuress of Henrietta Street".

Or, more specifically, you'll love it if you're a fan of the "Doctor Who" books. And I suspect that subset of fans is increasingly shrinking, siphoned off by the lack of availability of the books in the USA, and by the burgeoning audio series.

"The Adventuress of Henrietta Street" is a twisting, gory work of non-fiction. A lot has happened to the Doctor's universe in the books over the past couple of years -- most notably the erasal of Gallifrey and the Time Lords from all of history. "Henrietta" is the first book to try and pick up the pieces and sort out what the books' universe looks like now. It's done in the style of a Z-grade history book (hundreds of passages read similar to: "As the Doctor looked out over the ridge that day, he must have thought about...") and concerns the Doctor's one unsuccessful year as the proprietor of a London bordello. Obviously there's not a huge market for this sort of thing. Of the reported 20,000 people who initially set out to buy original DW fiction, how many of them will find this concept worthy? 900?

That said, once you buy into the central premise, "Henrietta" is truly awesome. A lot of significant events happen within the book's mythology. The name Lawrence Miles on the spine helps: whenever a massive arc shift occurs in the DW universe, it's done most interestingly when Miles is the author (see "Alien Bodies" and "Interference"). Miles weaves his mentally tortured ideas into a coherent whole, and leaves you wanting a lot more. One fun game is to count all the phony historical events that the book's anonymous narrator records so faithfully: Earth history as we know it has been radically altered since "The Ancestor Cell" and when you read here just how some of those events changed, you'll be quite amused (George Washington a ranting warlock, indeed!).

But there's another problem with any Miles-led story arc: the DW books come out monthly, but are written six months in advance. It takes a long time for the concepts Miles works with so deftly, to permeate the other novels -- witness the 18-month vacation of Faction Paradox after "Alien Bodies" was published. I fear a whole lot of confusion in the books ahead, until the other writers figure out just who Sabbath is -- that is, if he makes a return appearance at all!

As the "Doctor Who" books universe becomes a smaller and more confusing place, "The Adventuress of Henrietta Street" is one of its brighter corners. This book is well worth the effort.

Knowledge isn't always painless..........2002-07-16

Even though it's dense, even though it's long, if you follow the series book by book, you have to read it or else later you'll be sayng "What the...". I learned the hard way.

The Delaneys of Killaroo: Matilda, the Adventuress

Average customer rating:

The Delaneys of Killaroo: Matilda, the Adventuress
Iris Johansen
Manufacturer: Loveswept
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0553218735
Release Date: 1987-08-01

The Adventuress (A House for the Season, Book 5)

Average customer rating:

A lowly maid the CATCH of the Season? ?

The Adventuress (A House for the Season, Book 5)
Marion Chesney
Manufacturer: St Martins Mass Market Paper
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0312910614

Customer Reviews:

A lowly maid the CATCH of the Season? ?.......2000-10-11

Beauty is a powerful magnet and if done properly can fool all of high society's gentility. Emily shares in a bequest and becomes the darling of society, however, rumor begins that she is a runnaway maid and her "uncle" a former butler. The fifth volume of "A House for the Season" is delightful and fun. Emily gets into a tangle that only the servents can pull her out of.

Average customer rating:

Irene seeks out tattooed chests to solve a mystery
REVIEW THE BOOK, NOT THE LISTING
3.5 stars - Delightful.
What was wrong with the old title?
An actual review

The Adventuress (Irene Adler)
Carole Nelson Douglas
Manufacturer: Forge Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0765347156
Release Date: 2003-12-30

Book Description

Diva/detective Irene Adler and her bridegroom, handsome barrister Godfrey Norton, are honeymooning in Paris when they become embroiled in an investigation: a drowned sailor's body has been recovered from the Seine, and on his chest is a tattoo. A tattoo like one Irene once saw in London-- on another sailor's chest, while the corpse lay upon Bram Stoker's dining room table. This clue will lead Irene to the first beautiful blond American princess of Monaco, political and matrimonial treachery, and a sword duel as she and her new friend Sarah Bernhardt unravel the mystery-- with, of course, the help of Godfrey, Irene's faithful chronicler Miss Penelope Huxleigh, and Sherlock Holmes himself.

Customer Reviews:

Irene seeks out tattooed chests to solve a mystery.......2005-12-04

The Adventuress is the second in a series of mystery novels based on the career of Irene Adler Norton, a character from one of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. In Doyle's A Scandal In Bohemia Irene Adler outsmarts Holmes and wins his lasting admiration. Carol Nelson Douglas has taken this story as the basis for a series of delightful mystery novels that include Holmes and his companion Watson in mysteries that run parallel to the Holmes stories.

She has also created a framework for this continued series based on a current day historian Fiona Witherspoon who has supposedly discovered the diaries of Irene's companion Penelope "Nell" Huxleigh and unpublished memoirs of Holmes and Dr. Watson that she blends into the novels of the series.

This novel (which was originally published as Good Morning, Irene) takes an obscure reference in Doyle's story "The Sign of the Four" to Holmes going to France on a case involving a missing young woman as the basis for The Adventuress. Also worked into the plot is the 1889 marriage of Alice, Duchess of Richelieu to Prince Albert Grimaldi of Monaco. Anchored on these two points, Ms. Douglas spins a tale of lost treasure and a secret society of men marked with alphabetic tattoos who are drowning by jumping into rivers. The missing girl, Sarah Bernhardt, and Sherlock Holmes all help in solving the mystery of the drowning men and lost treasure.

The story is told through Nell's journals and her prudish country parson's daughter point of view. She is great at describing the details of Irene's lovely wardrobe and meticulously preserving the incidents of the case. A great read in a delightful series of novels. No prior knowledge of Sherlock Holmes is needed to enjoy this book.

REVIEW THE BOOK, NOT THE LISTING.......2005-05-04

Some people who use these review sites give low-star ratings to complain about some other matter than the content of the book. This book cover clearly lists the original title under the new one. You can't read it on the thumbnail, only on the enlarged cover image. Amazon should describe it as a "reissued edition" in the text, but that's not the book's fault. The Readers Guides explain why these new versions were retitled. Another publisher trespassed on the series titles, coming out with "Good Night, Irene," AFTER "Good Night, Mr. Holmes, "Good Morning, Irene," and "Irene at Large" were already out, causing a lot of confusion in distribution and even reviews. The retitled versions end the confusion. People who were misled by the thumbnail should write Amazon directly to rectify the listing. By the way, the book is very adventurous and amusing.

3.5 stars - Delightful........2005-04-10

Set in 19th century France, I am not generally a cozies reader, but the wonderful dialogue and study of society during this time more than made up for the lightness of the story. The contrast of the adventuresome Irene and the proper Penelope was absolutely delightful.

What was wrong with the old title?.......2005-03-29

I loved this book. The first time. When I bought it under the title Good Morning Irene. I don't appreciate buying a book that I think is new only to discover that it is a reissue with a new title. Frankly, I think it is a legal way to cheat book buyers.

An actual review.......2004-06-29

I am not going to address the "reissue" debate. I'm actually going to tell you something about the book.

Who would like this book? Anyone that loves Victoriana, 19th century history, mysteries, Sherlock Holmes (especially us Sherlockians, I have to say), and/or romance novels. Douglas' "Irene Adler series" has all of these elements and more. It is extremely well written. I consider myself to be extraordinarily literate and I still have to look up some of the terms in this series on occasion. I learn, but I am also entertained. I highly recommend this book as well as all of the Irene Adler series.

Madame Lynch & friend: A true account of an Irish adventuress and the dictator of Paraguay, who destroyed that American nation
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Binding: Unknown Binding

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