Victorian thriller!
She Be Damned: A Heloise Chancey Victorian Mystery (Heloise Chancey #1) by M.J. Tjia
A grim Victorian murder mystery with a rather different woman sleuth--the courtesan Heloise Chancey
It seems a serial killer is hiding in plain sight in the Waterloo area. The targets--pregnant prostitutes who are being horribly mutilated.
Concurrently Heloise is asked to help locate a respectable young woman, who has become pregnant and is being forced into a convent by her father. En route she escaped from that life of tedium into the merciless Waterloo area. But what might the poor girl have exchanged the tedium for?
Unfortunately Heloise's Chinese maid, Amah Li Leen becomes embroiled in the case and things take a grim turn.
Secrets of Heloise's past are revealed along the way, unraveled like some exotic Oriental dancer's costume. Interspersed between the diabolical happenings that are escalating, the interludes about the past provided by Amah Li Leen's and Heloise's reminiscences give more context to the life and mystery of Heloise.
I was struck by the unusualness of Heloise, a courtesan who courts danger and the challenge of investigation. A courtesan who seems very aware of the tightrope existence she leads.
A NetGalley ARC
****
A grim Victorian murder mystery with a rather different woman sleuth--the courtesan Heloise Chancey
It seems a serial killer is hiding in plain sight in the Waterloo area. The targets--pregnant prostitutes who are being horribly mutilated.
Concurrently Heloise is asked to help locate a respectable young woman, who has become pregnant and is being forced into a convent by her father. En route she escaped from that life of tedium into the merciless Waterloo area. But what might the poor girl have exchanged the tedium for?
Unfortunately Heloise's Chinese maid, Amah Li Leen becomes embroiled in the case and things take a grim turn.
Secrets of Heloise's past are revealed along the way, unraveled like some exotic Oriental dancer's costume. Interspersed between the diabolical happenings that are escalating, the interludes about the past provided by Amah Li Leen's and Heloise's reminiscences give more context to the life and mystery of Heloise.
I was struck by the unusualness of Heloise, a courtesan who courts danger and the challenge of investigation. A courtesan who seems very aware of the tightrope existence she leads.
A NetGalley ARC
****
Comments
Post a Comment