Nene Adams, the Miami-born author of the Gaslight series of Victorian mysteries and the Lambda Literary Award finalist Flowers of Edo, died on October 3, 2015.
Born in Miami in 1966, Adams lived across the southeastern United States and in New York City, and worked for eleven years in the newspaper and marketing industries. She began writing as a Xena: Warrior Princess fan fiction author and moved on to original fiction in many genres, including historical fiction, horror, romance and thrillers.
After her online stories drew an avid fan in the Netherlands, the Dutch artist Corrie Kuipers, the two fell in love, and in 1998 Adams moved to the Netherlands to be with her. They lived together there until Adams’s death.
The Sunne in Gold (2001) is a historical romance in which Lady Cathelin O’Cameron, an Irish knight returning from the Crusades, finds her family’s estate seized by a traitor and loses her heart to a Muslim slave-girl whose secrets threaten them both.
Black by Gaslight (2005) opens the Gaslight series in Whitechapel in 1888, where Rhiannon Moore meets the brilliant Lady Evangeline St. Claire and Jack the Ripper, and the two women must solve a deadly mystery while facing their growing attraction.
The Madonna of the Sorrows continues the Gaslight series in May 1889, when Evangeline and Rhiannon follow a priest’s murder and a stolen painting to a lost treasure and on to the Paris Exposition Universelle.
Adams was also one of twenty contributors to Telltale Kisses (2005), an anthology of lesbian romance stories published by BookEnds Press to benefit a children’s baseball program.
Water Witch: The Deceiver’s Grave (2007) is an eighteenth-century adventure set in a magical Caribbean, where the pirate Bess O’Bedlam, known as the Water Witch, hunts a legendary lost treasure alongside a Dutch thief, Marguerite de Vries.
The Witch’s Kiss (2007) returns to Evangeline and Rhiannon in July 1889, as Rhiannon travels to the Isle of Skye for the reading of a relative’s will while Evangeline investigates a murder at a women-only club in London.
Barking at the Moon (2009) follows Sheriff Annalee Crow as the investigation of a preacher’s murder leads her to the pale-furred wolves of Malingering Deep and the secretive family who lives among them.
The Curse of the Jade Dragon (2010), the fourth Gaslight novel, begins when a Chinese magician dies on stage before hundreds of witnesses, drawing Evangeline and Rhiannon into the world of variety theatre and international espionage.
Flowers of Edo (2010) is a ghost story set in the Yoshiwara district of Edo, in which Kazuko, a tattooed brothel guard, unleashes a vengeful spirit that endangers her and her lover, Mayumi.
The Midnight Sun (2013) is a romantic thriller set during the Yukon River Quest, where FBI agent Tabitha Knowles and fellow paddler Diana Crenshaw are driven off the river by a sniper and must survive the wilderness together.
The Consequence of Murder (2014) launched the Mackenzie Cross Paranormal Mysteries in Antioch, Georgia, where investigator Mackenzie Cross is pressed by the ghost of a murdered woman to find her killer.
Burn All Alike (2014) continues the series as Mackenzie and her girlfriend, Veronica Birdwell, investigate an arsonist and a buried wartime secret involving an internment camp.
Taken at the Flood (2016) was published after her death. Former Navy captain Meredith Reid and the art recovery specialist Rue Stanton race to find a German U-boat carrying looted treasure.
Adams won the Golden Crown Literary Award twice, for Barking at the Moon in 2010 and for The Consequence of Murder in 2015. Flowers of Edo was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award, and Burn All Alike was a Golden Crown finalist. Black by Gaslight and The Madonna of the Sorrows together won a 2006 IPPY Award in the Gay/Lesbian category. In 2012 the Royal Academy of Bards, an online Xena fan fiction community, honored her with its Lifetime Achievement Award.
Complete Bibliography
Novels: The Sunne in Gold (2001), Black by Gaslight (2005), The Madonna of the Sorrows, Water Witch: The Deceiver’s Grave (2007), The Witch’s Kiss (2007), Barking at the Moon (2009), The Curse of the Jade Dragon (2010), Flowers of Edo (2010), The Midnight Sun (2013), The Consequence of Murder (2014), Burn All Alike (2014), Sweet (2015), Taken at the Flood (2016)
Anthology contributions: Telltale Kisses (2005)
Nene Adams died on October 3, 2015, in the Netherlands. She was 48. She is survived by her partner, the Dutch artist Corrie Kuipers.