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The Second Glass of Absinthe
In the American West of 1880, Leadville, Colorado, is the wealthiest mining district on earth and by far its richest mine is the Eye Dazzler.
When Lucinda Ridenour, the notorious widow-heiress to the Dazzler, chooses young Kit Randall to be her lover, Kit thinks he has the world at his feet. But when their affair sinks into depravity, he must rediscover himself and find out if he has the character to survive in a society that has more money than morals.
After waking up from an absinthe-created hallucination in which unspeakable acts seem to have taken place, Kit angrily leaves the house of Lucinda and her twenty-year-old son, Christopher, feeling betrayed and exploited. Then, Lucinda is found stabbed to death.
In the midst of this turmoil and of Leadville's anxiety over its labor unrest and the impending arrival of the railroad, Kit's uncle, Brad Randall, and his fiancé, Eden Murdoch, arrive in the boomtown planning to celebrate their wedding, but are instead shocked to learn Kit is the primary suspect in the sensational murder.
Eden resolves to learn the truth and clear Kit Randall's name. To do so, she forms an uneasy alliance with Bella Valentine, Kit's former girlfriend and a dabbler in the occult. With this unlikely ally Eden uncovers shocking secrets of the Ridenour family just as Leadville's first labor strike brings the town to an armed and dangerous standstill.
The Second Glass of Absinthe is a dazzling glimpse of the Victorian West and a riveting murder mystery set in the dizzying world of a boomtown where lusts-for gold, for power, for flesh-intoxicate all who come in contact with it.
When Lucinda Ridenour, the notorious widow-heiress to the Dazzler, chooses young Kit Randall to be her lover, Kit thinks he has the world at his feet. But when their affair sinks into depravity, he must rediscover himself and find out if he has the character to survive in a society that has more money than morals.
After waking up from an absinthe-created hallucination in which unspeakable acts seem to have taken place, Kit angrily leaves the house of Lucinda and her twenty-year-old son, Christopher, feeling betrayed and exploited. Then, Lucinda is found stabbed to death.
In the midst of this turmoil and of Leadville's anxiety over its labor unrest and the impending arrival of the railroad, Kit's uncle, Brad Randall, and his fiancé, Eden Murdoch, arrive in the boomtown planning to celebrate their wedding, but are instead shocked to learn Kit is the primary suspect in the sensational murder.
Eden resolves to learn the truth and clear Kit Randall's name. To do so, she forms an uneasy alliance with Bella Valentine, Kit's former girlfriend and a dabbler in the occult. With this unlikely ally Eden uncovers shocking secrets of the Ridenour family just as Leadville's first labor strike brings the town to an armed and dangerous standstill.
The Second Glass of Absinthe is a dazzling glimpse of the Victorian West and a riveting murder mystery set in the dizzying world of a boomtown where lusts-for gold, for power, for flesh-intoxicate all who come in contact with it.
320 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
99 people want to read
About the author
Michelle Black
23 books42 followersMichelle Black is the author of six novels of the Victorian West, including the bestselling AN UNCOMMON ENEMY. Her latest, Séance in Sepia, debuted in October 2011, and features real-life feminist firebrand, Victoria Woodhull as its protagonist. She in a Queen Anne Victorian home near Boulder, Colorado.
She was born in Kansas and studied anthropology in college. She went on to law school and graduated with honors. In 1993, she moved to Colorado and began to focus on her fiction writing. For three years, she owned a bookstore in Frisco, Colorado, a small town nestled high in the Colorado Rockies.
While researching her first Eden Murdoch novel, An Uncommon Enemy, she began to study the Cheyenne language and became involved in the movement to save our Native American languages from extinction. Her company, WinterSun Press, began to publish a Cheyenne language course called "Let's Talk Cheyenne" in a not-for-profit collaboration with a linguist on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana.
She loves to travel and particularly enjoys visiting the “homes and haunts” of her literary heroes, Hemingway’s Key West, the Yorkshire Moors of the Bronte sisters, Jane Austin’s Bath, as well as perennial favorites—Paris, Tokyo, Venice.
In 2008, she spent several weeks on a Buddhist pilgrimage to India and was privileged to study with her favorite Buddhist writer and the foremost proponent of secular Buddhism, Stephen Batchelor. The pilgrims visited all the sites associated by the life of Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Buddha.
She was born in Kansas and studied anthropology in college. She went on to law school and graduated with honors. In 1993, she moved to Colorado and began to focus on her fiction writing. For three years, she owned a bookstore in Frisco, Colorado, a small town nestled high in the Colorado Rockies.
While researching her first Eden Murdoch novel, An Uncommon Enemy, she began to study the Cheyenne language and became involved in the movement to save our Native American languages from extinction. Her company, WinterSun Press, began to publish a Cheyenne language course called "Let's Talk Cheyenne" in a not-for-profit collaboration with a linguist on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana.
She loves to travel and particularly enjoys visiting the “homes and haunts” of her literary heroes, Hemingway’s Key West, the Yorkshire Moors of the Bronte sisters, Jane Austin’s Bath, as well as perennial favorites—Paris, Tokyo, Venice.
In 2008, she spent several weeks on a Buddhist pilgrimage to India and was privileged to study with her favorite Buddhist writer and the foremost proponent of secular Buddhism, Stephen Batchelor. The pilgrims visited all the sites associated by the life of Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Buddha.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
August 19, 2014
A mystery set in the Victorian west- intriguing, isn't it? A local mine owner known best for her ability to start a scandal is found dead, and the chief suspect her former boy toy, with whom she'd recently quarreled. The town is on the edge of strike, and tensions run high.
A great start to a mystery, and it had a lot of potential to live up to.
However, it never quite made it all the way. The characters developed- but only just enough to not be entirely one-dimensional. A great deal of plot exposition was done entirely in dialogue: rather than showing us what was going on around the town, we heard one of the few central characters talking about it. In addition, there was some backstory that felt incredibly disconnected from the rest of the story. If it had been dropped entirely, nothing else would have needed to change.
I'm glad to have read it, but I really feel that the book could have used another round of editing before seeing publication.
I received this book for free through the Goodreads First Reads program.
A great start to a mystery, and it had a lot of potential to live up to.
However, it never quite made it all the way. The characters developed- but only just enough to not be entirely one-dimensional. A great deal of plot exposition was done entirely in dialogue: rather than showing us what was going on around the town, we heard one of the few central characters talking about it. In addition, there was some backstory that felt incredibly disconnected from the rest of the story. If it had been dropped entirely, nothing else would have needed to change.
I'm glad to have read it, but I really feel that the book could have used another round of editing before seeing publication.
I received this book for free through the Goodreads First Reads program.
June 27, 2019
This is a fluffy, fast-paced adventure; I might go so far as to call it a "rollicking good time".
Unfortunately, I like even my escapist reading to pay attention to the basic mechanics of storytelling, otherwise I can't escape into it. Black's understanding of "old-fashioned" dialogue amounts to modern conventions(sarcasm, self-consciousness, and slang) minus contractions. Background arrives via graceless expository lumps or hilariously awkward as-you-know-bobs (the main female character actually writes "As you know, I never partake of strong drink" in a letter to her fiance!).
As a Pagan, I was most disappointed in Bella, essentially a Wild West Wiccan. When this book was published in 2003, most folks had abandoned the belief in modern Paganism as we know it as an unbroken lineage from pre-Christian times. For Bella, a late-19th-century woman, to practice a religion that reads like it's straight out of Llewellyn's Grimoire fore Ye Wiccane Beginnere insults the reader's intelligence and takes a lot of wind out of the book's already flapping sails.
Unfortunately, I like even my escapist reading to pay attention to the basic mechanics of storytelling, otherwise I can't escape into it. Black's understanding of "old-fashioned" dialogue amounts to modern conventions(sarcasm, self-consciousness, and slang) minus contractions. Background arrives via graceless expository lumps or hilariously awkward as-you-know-bobs (the main female character actually writes "As you know, I never partake of strong drink" in a letter to her fiance!).
As a Pagan, I was most disappointed in Bella, essentially a Wild West Wiccan. When this book was published in 2003, most folks had abandoned the belief in modern Paganism as we know it as an unbroken lineage from pre-Christian times. For Bella, a late-19th-century woman, to practice a religion that reads like it's straight out of Llewellyn's Grimoire fore Ye Wiccane Beginnere insults the reader's intelligence and takes a lot of wind out of the book's already flapping sails.
August 14, 2011
I generally don't rate books I don't finish but I'll
make an exception in this case. It felt like the author didn't do basic research on her setting - I kept getting pulled out of the story by clumsy mistakes. The problem with using a setting as frequently depicted and described as late 1800s Colorado is that the reader generally has a picture in mind. Having characters make
statements like '"Let's go shopping!" (really? How many times can you visit the General Store?) made this reader feel like she was reading a novel set in the contemporary Midwest. Unfortunate, since the book looked interesting and got off to a decent start.
make an exception in this case. It felt like the author didn't do basic research on her setting - I kept getting pulled out of the story by clumsy mistakes. The problem with using a setting as frequently depicted and described as late 1800s Colorado is that the reader generally has a picture in mind. Having characters make
statements like '"Let's go shopping!" (really? How many times can you visit the General Store?) made this reader feel like she was reading a novel set in the contemporary Midwest. Unfortunate, since the book looked interesting and got off to a decent start.
July 1, 2017
Much better than her previous Victorian West mystery but still nowhere near as good as Uncommon Enemy. This one had a much more developed mystery that kept me in doubt to the end. Some characters are changing in ways I do not like. Interesting setting in 1880s Leadville.
March 21, 2011
The book was alright. There was a lot I would have changed.
You can read a full review at LiteraryEscapism.com
You can read a full review at LiteraryEscapism.com
August 29, 2018
This was an entertaining read that held my interest. It was a local author and local setting that I know, and historical fiction which is one of my favorite genres, so an all around winner. It was certainly not great literature, but the plot and characters were fairly well developed, and the murderer not easily apparent. Goodreads has a good summary of the basic story.
All kinds of people are heading to Leadville Colorado in 1880 to strike it rich. There are several large mines that are the major employers around town, but not everyone is happy with the working conditions. Union organizers are sneaking around town at night, trying to encourage a strike for better wages, shorter hours, and safer conditions. The wealthy mine owners are trying to not give in.
But the major story revolves around Lucinda R and her younger lover, Kit. He is her kept man until one strange night, after overindulging in absinthe and having sexual hallucinations, he leaves her. Soon after she is found stabbed to death, her throat cut, and Kit is a major suspect.
The rest of the book revolves around Kit's aunt Eden and his lover Bella trying to figure out what really happened and who is involved. I think the historical details of a real Western town were very well done, and the personal suspicions, jealousies, fears, and prejudices were certainly accurate for the time, and even universal traits currently.
All kinds of people are heading to Leadville Colorado in 1880 to strike it rich. There are several large mines that are the major employers around town, but not everyone is happy with the working conditions. Union organizers are sneaking around town at night, trying to encourage a strike for better wages, shorter hours, and safer conditions. The wealthy mine owners are trying to not give in.
But the major story revolves around Lucinda R and her younger lover, Kit. He is her kept man until one strange night, after overindulging in absinthe and having sexual hallucinations, he leaves her. Soon after she is found stabbed to death, her throat cut, and Kit is a major suspect.
The rest of the book revolves around Kit's aunt Eden and his lover Bella trying to figure out what really happened and who is involved. I think the historical details of a real Western town were very well done, and the personal suspicions, jealousies, fears, and prejudices were certainly accurate for the time, and even universal traits currently.
October 31, 2012
After reading some of the reviews, I was concerned that this book would not live up to my expectations, but it turns out I had nothing to fear. The story moves at a fast pace, with enough humor, suspense and drama to keep anyone's interest. I do not have high expectations of mystery novels in general. For me, they are just a step ahead of brain candy, aka romance novels. I love blazing through mysteries and yearning for another one as soon as I am done. It is unfair to compare a good mystery with an eight hundred page drama or thriller.
Being from Colorado, I was impressed with the author's research and application of the history of the area. I would classify this book as steampunk genre and found the blend of real life situations, metaphysical aspects, and just pure imaginative fiction refreshing.
Being from Colorado, I was impressed with the author's research and application of the history of the area. I would classify this book as steampunk genre and found the blend of real life situations, metaphysical aspects, and just pure imaginative fiction refreshing.
August 27, 2012
Interesting tale woven from a time in History where the rich get richer on the backs of workers who get paid little compensation with no benefits,wine,debauchery,dangerous liaisons between married people,living above one's means,debt!,evil yet profession of being a saintly person by outward appearances and actions,murder,mayhem,drunkards,homosexuality,witchery,con artist & scams etc...OH WAIT!_this was during "Victorian times in America"_NOT TODAY!
As for the title_just a couple of brief mentions of Absinthe_"The Green Devil"_and the consequences of which the character couldn't remember if it was a woman or man he was with the night before.....and so the story goes.
As for the title_just a couple of brief mentions of Absinthe_"The Green Devil"_and the consequences of which the character couldn't remember if it was a woman or man he was with the night before.....and so the story goes.
October 25, 2011
My mother always said that "If you can't say something nice, you shouldn't say anything at all." First let me say that this was the first (and as of this writing only) free book received through the Goodreads First Reads program.
I can say that I want to know more about the series star Eve Murdoch, her back story sounds fascinating, and she doesn't seem to appear much or if she did it wasn't memorable. Her soon to be nephew .Kit Randall, whose poor choices drive the narrative, appears far to much and is annoying & whiny.
I really need to work on my book review skills.
I can say that I want to know more about the series star Eve Murdoch, her back story sounds fascinating, and she doesn't seem to appear much or if she did it wasn't memorable. Her soon to be nephew .Kit Randall, whose poor choices drive the narrative, appears far to much and is annoying & whiny.
I really need to work on my book review skills.
February 1, 2013
The characters were likable, the story was good, it was set in the past but had a contempory feel to the movement, character interactions, and language. I did like how it dealt with topics that still cause outrage in some people today and how much more taboo it was back then. I would not shy away from this book, but it is one of those books you read on a long flight ot train ride. It will move quick and hold your attention long enough
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January 20, 2011The author of this title is an RMFW member. For that reason, we do not rate these selections. We’re kind of biased. However, it wouldn’t be right if we didn’t have them on our shelves. And you’ll see this message on any other titles that come from our members. We do hope that you’ll consider reading it, though. ;)
Gusto Dave, Publicity Chair for RMFW
Gusto Dave, Publicity Chair for RMFW
April 21, 2012
Found this to be a fascinating look at the midwest during a boom - in this case coal.
The author deserves credit for including accurate historical details without detracting from the flow of the story.
I admit freely I would never have connected absinthe consumption with the american west ;-)
The author deserves credit for including accurate historical details without detracting from the flow of the story.
I admit freely I would never have connected absinthe consumption with the american west ;-)
August 19, 2016
Another good one from Michelle Black
This is the third book of hers I have read. Loved the first book the best but the last two in this series are worth the time. I love the Eden character.
This is the third book of hers I have read. Loved the first book the best but the last two in this series are worth the time. I love the Eden character.
March 4, 2008
There's some interesting historical stuff in this story, but it's not nearly as good as the two that came before it in the series.
June 2, 2009
loved it
Want to read
December 28, 2010Thank you so much for letting me win this free book from First Reads. Looking forward to reading it. Thank you.
Want to read
January 1, 2011Thank you Goodreads First Reads for this free book. Looking forward to reading it when I get it.
January 23, 2016
I was intrigued by the idea of an "Old West Victorian mystery." Very good, no-holds-barred story.
January 31, 2011
A fun read, I'm continuing on to read more in this series. Highly recommend this book.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews