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~ And a cozy spot to enjoy them both.

Whiskey With My Book

Monthly Archives: June 2017

The Dastardly Miss Lizzie (Electric Empire, #3) by Viola Carr – Review

30 Friday Jun 2017

Posted by WWMB in Book Review

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

5 stars, audiobook, Beverly A. Crick, Book Review, historical, mystery, romance, series, Steampunk, Viola Carr

Review by Riley

About The Dastardly Miss Lizzie

Dr. Eliza Jekyll must turn to her dark side, Miss Lizzie Hyde, to stop a madman who’s targeting London’s most important scientists and sorcerers, terrorizing the city with dark magic, in this third Electric Empire novel—a dazzlingly original steampunk fantasy set in the gritty world of alternate Victorian London, with echoes of H. G. Wells’s classic, The Time Machine.

Being two people in one body isn’t easy. Metropolitan Police crime scene physician Eliza Jekyll is trying to maintain a semblance of control, even as her rebellious second self, Lizzie, grows increasingly wild—threatening the respectable Eliza’s reputation and her marriage to Remy Lafayette, the Royal Society investigator and occasional lycanthrope. With England on the brink of war, Remy’s away in sorcery-riddled Paris on a secretive mission that grows ever more sinister. Has he been an enemy agent all along? Or is coping with her secret divided self finally driving Eliza mad?

Eliza needs her mind clear and sharp if she’s to catch an evil genius who is killing eminent scientists. The chase uncovers a murky world of forbidden books, secret laboratories, and a cabal of fanatical inventors whose work could change the world—or destroy it—and who may hold answers to Eliza’s mysterious past.

As sorcery-wielding terrorists attack London, Eliza discovers her own enemies are closing in, driving her to desperate measures—enlisting the aid of the wily, resourceful, mercurial Lizzie—to thwart the killer. But Lizzie’s got her own life now, and true to her nature, will resort to the devious and diabolical to keep it. Even if it means throwing Eliza to the wolves, and letting the world burn…..

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Review of The Dastardly Miss Lizzie

Two people, two personalities, two body shapes. But just one allotted space on earth. That’s the background you need to know. Way more than split personality, these characters, Dr. Eliza Jekyll and Miss Lizzie Hyde, have the misfortune of sharing the exact same space. Share is all they can do. They have an arrangement, albeit an imperfect arrangement.  But imperfect is part of the fun.

The story takes place in London, half on the cheery middle class side of town, but also half on the darker, seedier side of town. The juxtaposition of these settings can be jolting, though I mean that in a positive way. It draws attention to the polar personalities of Eliza and Lizzie.

Lizzie’s favorite neighborhood is dark, gritty and populated with the ultra-poor, rejects, criminals, and not a few oddities that may or may not be human. Both crime and passion are rampant there, so I would expect much of the action to take place there. And it does.

Eliza’s middle class neighborhood is calm. And it is mostly safe. But murder is not class-conscious and Eliza is called to investigate a murder that turns into a grizzly and convoluted case. I mean Grizzly with a capital ‘G’. Ms. Carr’s murderers have quite the imagination! And, as usual, Eliza seems to be working on more than one mystery at a time with her friend and partner, Inspector Harley Griffin. They work the cases, while Eliza’s nemesis Chief Inspector Reeve, continually gets in the way. Reeve is such a great character to boo at!

Like books 1 and 2, The Dastardly Miss Lizzie has rather the intricate plot. Multiple murders, suspects galore and complex characters. Lizzie’s friend Johnny and Eliza’s beau Lafayette are part of the continuing cast of characters and both add to the romance aspect of the story, but also play their own roles in the big climactic finish.

Yes, there is a big finish. This plot far surpasses the solving of a serial murder mystery and becomes extraordinary. We are talking a magnificent, physics-defying, beyond-time, character-defining dénouement. Clues leading up to the finish are found all along the way, though I don’t think I could possibly have guessed who the baddie was and what they would do. Let’s just say it is a satisfying, steampunkish ending to an amazing series.

The relationship between Eliza and Lizzie is, by far, my favorite part of these stories. It adds both suspense and humor. The manifestation of Lizzie when Eliza is in control is a delightful complication to the relationship between these two. Their constant battle to either hate each other or support each other itches to be resolved. The writing, clearly depicting these two personalities is so cool, with the different voices and dialects. By the way, if you happen to enjoy audiobooks, narrator Beverly A. Crick is a genius with these voices and the first time I heard her read a scene where Eliza shifted to Lizzie, I got chills.

I would like to say that The Dastardly Miss Lizzie can be read as a stand alone, but I believe the experience would be immensely enhanced by reading the books in order. Otherwise, you might be likely to quote Eliza’s clockwork assistant Hippocrates: “Does not compute.” You will better understand the relationships and also Eliza’s and Lizzie’s background.

It is impossible for me to review The Dastardly Miss Lizzie without referring to the entire Electric Empire series. I immersed myself in the series this summer, re-reading book one and following it up with book 2 and book 3. This series is dark and light, gritty and fantastic, creepy and funny, disastrous and hopeful. It has romance, mystery and a quite a bit of steampunkiness throughout. I love this series!

Review copy provided by Edelweis.

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Links

Add The Dastardly Miss Lizzie to your Goodreads shelf:

Purchase Electric Empire series books:

It’s June

29 Thursday Jun 2017

Posted by WWMB in Did You Know?

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

hail, June, luck, thunderstorm, tornado, wind

It’s June.

In Southwest Iowa, that means unstable weather patterns.  Storms, hail, lightening, thunder and wind.  Tornadoes too.

My little corner of Iowa made the national news last night due to one or more tornadoes that spun out of the storm.  Luckily, nobody was hurt.  But there are a few unlucky families who are now dealing with plenty of tornado damage.  At my house, all is well and the cats are accounted for.

I’ve been through 2 tornadoes in the past.  In both cases, I could not see the tornado.  But I was in awe as I viewed the damage after the storms passed. It is the natural damage that I always find most amazing.  Large trees torn from their bases and moved surprising distances.  Fractured branches driven a foot into the ground from the force of landing.  Pastures absolutely flattened.

We have had several storms come through in the last couple of weeks, that included damaging hail and high winds and many people sustained property damage.  While we did loose quite a few tree branches, we have been otherwise unaffected.  I told my hubby that we should buy a lottery ticket.  We stand to win big if our luck holds out. 🙂

How is the weather in your part of the world?

The Thirteenth Gate by Kat Ross – Feature With Excerpt and Giveaway

28 Wednesday Jun 2017

Posted by WWMB in Featuring....

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

book feature, Damonza, excerpt, fantasy, gaslight, giveaway, historical, Kat Ross, mystery

About The Thirteenth Gate

Winter 1888. At an asylum in the English countryside, a man suspected of being Jack the Ripper kills an orderly and flees into the rain-soaked night. His distraught keepers summon the Lady Vivienne Cumberland—who’s interviewed their patient and isn’t sure he’s a man at all. An enigmatic woman who guards her own secrets closely, Lady Vivienne knows a creature from the underworld when she sees one. And he’s the most dangerous she’s ever encountered.

As Jack rampages through London, Lady Vivienne begins to suspect what he’s searching for. And if he finds it, the doors to purgatory will be thrown wide open…

Across the Atlantic, an archaeologist is brutally murdered after a Christmas Eve gala at the American Museum of Natural History. Certain peculiar aspects of the crime attract the interest of the Society for Psychical Research and its newest investigator, Harrison Fearing Pell. Is Dr. Sabelline’s death related to his recent dig in Alexandria? Or is the motive something darker?

As Harry uncovers troubling connections to a serial murder case she’d believed was definitively solved, two mysteries converge amid the grit and glamor of Gilded Age New York. Harry and Lady Vivienne must join forces to stop an ancient evil. The key is something called the Thirteenth Gate. But where is it? And more importantly, who will find it first?

Series: Dominion Mystery
Genre: Fantasy/mystery
Cover Artist: Damonza
Publisher: Acorn
Date of Publication: June 26, 2017
Number of pages: 380
Word Count: 88k

Excerpt from The Thirteenth Gate

The Greymoor Lunatic Asylum made a grim impression even in daylight. It crouched at the end of a long, treeless drive, barred windows gleaming beneath a peaked slate roof. After her first interview with Dr. William Clarence, Lady Vivienne Cumberland had taken a hard look at those bars. She’d strongly suggested to the asylum superintendent that he move Dr. Clarence to a room with no window at all.

That had been just over a month ago. Now, in the darkest hour of the night, with rain coursing down the brick façade and thunder rattling the turrets, Greymoor looked like something torn from the pages of a penny dreadful, hulking and shadowed despite the lamps burning in every window. At the wrought-iron front gate, a black brougham drew to a halt. Following a brief exchange with the occupants, two officers from the Essex constabulary waved it through, immediately ducking back into the shelter of a police wagon.

“I told them to watch him,” Lady Cumberland muttered, yanking her gloves on. “To keep him isolated from the staff and other patients. Clearly, they didn’t listen. The fools.”

Alec Lawrence gripped the cane resting across his knees. He had been present at the interview, had looked into Dr. Clarence’s eyes, a blue so pale they reminded him of a Siberian dog. The memory unsettled him still, and he wasn’t a man who was easily shaken.

“We don’t know what happened yet,” he pointed out. “Superintendent Barrett can hardly be faulted considering we withheld certain information. I rather doubt he would have believed us anyway.”

Vivienne scowled. “You may be right, but it was only a matter of time. I’ve known that since the day Clarence was brought here. The S.P.R. made a very bad mistake entrusting him to Greymoor.”

“We still don’t know for sure—”

“Yes, we do. The killings stopped, didn’t they?”

“That could be for any number of reasons,” he said stubbornly.

“Including that the creature who committed them is behind bars. Or was, at least.”

Alec Lawrence buttoned his woolen greatcoat. This was not a new debate. “Perhaps. But there’s not a scrap of hard evidence against him. Nothing but a single reference in a report by some American girl and Clarence’s own odd demeanor. Had there been more, he would have been locked up tight in Newgate Prison.”

Vivienne turned her obsidian gaze on him. With her high cheekbones and full lips, she might have been thirty, or a decade in either direction. Only Alec and a handful of others knew better.

“That American girl is Arthur Conan Doyle’s goddaughter and she seemed quite clever to me. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway,” she added quietly. “Walls don’t hold Dr. Clarence’s sort for long.”

“Look,” he said, softening. “For what it’s worth, I think we did the right thing taking him off the streets. I just….” He trailed off, unsure how he meant to finish the thought.

“You don’t trust my judgment anymore. Since Harper Dods.”

“That’s not even remotely true. I simply think we need to keep open minds on the matter. The signs aren’t there, Vivienne. I’m the first to admit Dr. Clarence is an odd duck, perhaps worse. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t human.”

Vivienne arched a perfectly sculpted eyebrow. “And yet here we are, summoned by Sidgwick in the middle of the night. I wonder if he’s regretting his decision?”

The note from Henry Sidgwick, president of the Society for Psychical Research, had arrived in the form of a small, bedraggled messenger boy pounding on Lady Vivienne’s front door in St. James an hour before. It was both vague and ominous, citing an “unfortunate incident” involving Dr. Clarence and urging all due haste to the asylum.

“I suppose we’ll find out in a minute,” Alec said, turning his collar up. He swiped a hand through chestnut hair and jammed a top hat on his head. “Off to the races.”

A gust of rain shook the carriage as it slowed at the front entrance. A six-story tower capped by a Roman clock and white spire anchored two wings extending on either side. Unlike most asylums, which had separate annexes for men and women, Greymoor’s residents were all male. The north wing housed those poor souls suffering from garden-variety disorders like dementia and melancholia. The other was reserved for the so-called “incurables,” a euphemism for the criminally insane. Violent, unpredictable men deemed unfit for prison.

Despite his doubts, Alec Lawrence would have happily had the lot of them over for tea rather than spend five minutes in the company of Dr. William Clarence. In his heart, he wondered if Vivienne’s instincts were correct. But he wanted her to be wrong because the alternative was far worse.

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Links

Add The Thirteenth Gate to your Goodreads shelf:

Purchase The Thirteenth Gate (Dominion Mysteries, #2)

Purchase The Daemoniac (Dominion Mysteries, #1)

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About the Author

Kat Ross worked as a journalist at the United Nations for ten years before happily falling back into what she likes best: making stuff up. She’s the author of the dystopian thriller Some Fine Day, the Fourth Element fantasy series (The Midnight Sea, Blood of the Prophet, Queen of Chaos), and the new Dominion Mysteries. She loves myths, monsters and doomsday scenarios.

Find Kat Ross at:

Website: http://katrossbooks.com/index.html
Twitter: https://twitter.com/katrossauthor
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kat.ross.3382
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/katrosswriter/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7426942.Kat_Ross

 

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