The Clockwork Wolf
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
In Book Two of the Disenchanted & Co. steampunk series, Charmian (Kit) Kittredge confronts native magics and mechanical menaces in Toriana—an alternate America that lost the Revolutionary War.
As the proprietor of Disenchanted & Co. in a steampunk version of America, Charmian “Kit” Kittredge makes her living solving magical crimes. But when a snobbish lady begs for help, saving her reputation might very well cost Kit her life.
Doing a favor for deathmage Lucien Dredmore, Kit agrees to interview a newly widowed lady as a potential client. Upon meeting, however, she learns that the woman in question is none other than Lady Eugenia Bestly, president of the Rumsen Ladies Decency Society—someone who once led a vicious campaign to ruin Kit’s life. Ironically Lady Bestly now lives in fear herself, for the press is about to unmask her husband as the savage “Wolfman” who died while terrorizing the city.
As monstrous rampages continue to occur, Kit soon determines there is more than one Wolfman, and that they may themselves be victims of evil players. While avoiding both mechanized assassins and attempts by Dredmore and Chief Inspector Tom Doyle to take her under their protection, Kit follows a tangled path that leads from a prestigious gentlemen’s club fronting a hellish secret to a vengeful native tribe and dangerous, ancient magics.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the second steampunk adventure featuring Charmian "Kit" Kittredge (after Disenchanted & Co.), the fierce crimesolver is tasked with protecting the reputation of wealthy Lady Eugenia Bestly. Lady Bestly's recently deceased husband was one of the shape-shifting, part-clockwork Wolfmen who have been terrorizing Toriana (this timeline's version of America). Lady Bestly believes that he was bespelled into his violent behavior. As Kit attempts to uncover the wolves' origins, she is assisted by a colorful cast, including her best friend, Carina Eagle, the proprietor of a brothel; her ghost grandfather, Harry; her childhood friend, Chief Insp. Tommy Doyle; and the magnetic deathmage Lucien Dredmore. Viehl is at her best when exploring the Kit-Tommy-Lucien love triangle, but this otherwise zippy page-turner drowns in an abundance of characters, and Kit lacks depth and realistic flaws.