The Second Glass of Absinthe: A Mystery of the Victorian West » (First Edition)

Michelle Black is the Colorado author of such novels as An Uncommon Enemy and Solomon Spring.

"After the first glass [of absinthe], you see things as you wish they were.
After the second, you see things as they are not. Finally, you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world."
-Oscar Wilde

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.

Publishers Weekly

Despite its wonderfully realized setting (Leadville, Colo., in 1880) and arresting title taken from an Oscar Wilde aphorism ("After the first glass [of absinthe] you see things as you wish they were. After the second, you see things as they are not. Finally, you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world"), Black's latest Victorian western mystery (after 2002's Solomon Spring) comes across largely as a missed opportunity, due to slack placing. Having lost all his money gambling, Kit Randall becomes a kept man, the plaything of wealthy Lucinda Ridenour, widow and heiress to the Eye Dazzler mine. When someone stabs Lucinda to death with a wolf's-head pocketknife similar to the one Kit owns, Kit flees and takes refuge with Bella Valentine, a prostitute-cum-fortune teller. Numerous other suspects include the mine foreman and the foreman's wife. Striking miners and the imminent arrival of former President Grant complicate the equation. All in all, the story contains the makings of an engrossing mystery, but the action is so strung out readers will find it difficult to care who killed the heiress or why. The authentic period detail, however, should provide satisfaction enough for many fans, especially those for whom the crime-solving is incidental. Agent, Nat Sobel. (Sept. 10) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.