Agent Turner is dead and her demon Lavender is missing. This is not what Hazel Locke, her apprentice and member of Her Majesty’s Paranormal Investigative Agency, wanted, as suddenly she is thrust into the limelight.
Turner was investigating a string of
murders in Whitechapel. Granted, it was in her own style and not the way the
agency wanted, but Turner was a force unto herself and someone Locke admired.
When Locke is required to take over her position, it becomes time for her to
summon her own demon. But the Hound she is supposed to get is not what she
expected.
Agent Locke is now a firecracker in an era
where women are told to hold their mouths and keep their ideas to themselves. With
her demon, Steel, by her side, Locke is desperate to solve the women’s murders
and to find out who killed Turner. But every way she turns, she is blocked by
politics or archaic rules. Time to get a little creative?
I admit I had to start this a number of
times as the names and characters were a little confusing at first, but once I
got going, I was hooked. Locke’s mix of wanting to follow the right path but
also wanting solve the murders no matter what, takes the reader on a roundabout
journey to find the truth. It also speaks to her loyalty to Monaghan, her boss
and the man who rescued her, but her deep-seated desire to do the right thing
and be truthful and help others. The places and scenes are well described and
you can picture the dark of Victorian England and see the gruesome crime scenes
as well as enjoy the images of the clothing and the innovation of Maia’s food.
The author has a lovely flow to her writing
and it’s one of those books you can just pick up and read and the time flies by
before you know it. The pacing was great and there were moments you could take
a breath and enjoy the banter between Locke and Steel and then it speeds up
where Rayne and Cassius insert themselves. The story is a fantastic take on a historical
paranormal plot and the nuances of the agency and the hierarchy of the agents
(with their own agendas) and their demons was cleverly thought out. The agents
all had good stories to fit in with the overall account. It was well edited too
with only a few pesky mistakes sneaking through.
While the book does not end on a
cliffhanger, it was enough to make me get to the last sentence and say NOOOOOO!
I need more!
Thanks to Voracious Readers Only and the
author for a copy.
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