I’ve had an e-copy of The Werewolf of Whitechapel for a while. Then, not so long ago, I won a physical copy (with a much cuter cover). After reading it, I purchased the rest of the trilogy (Anarchist on the Orient Express and A Vampire in Bavaria).
Murder, monsters…and a disreputable Victorian lady’s maid.
A killer stalks the grimy streets of Whitechapel—but Scotland Yard seems determined to turn a blind eye. With one look at her best friend’s corpse, Liz Sharp already knows the truth: the killer is a werewolf.
No one important will hold a werewolf accountable—after all, the monsters rule Europe. Certainly, no one will believe a werewolf victim like Liz: the very scars that make her determined to investigate Sal’s death also condemn her as the sort of female who’d sell her blood for easy money.
As it happens, Liz’s best hope for justice might well lie with her emotionally repressed employer, Princess May. Though the princess has connections with werewolf royalty, there’s no one else Liz can turn to. Certainly, she can’t risk trusting the irritatingly personable Inspector Short, who dogs her steps from the slums of Whitechapel to the palaces of St James.
But as corpses mount up, Liz discovers that no one is precisely who she thought: not Sal, not herself, and certainly not the werewolf.
Luckily, she has a few tricks hidden in the pockets of her trusty bloomers…
I read this trilogy straight through, as one. So, I’ll just go ahead and review it as such, though the books do break at natural points with their own particular challenges to overcome.
If you enjoyed The Parasol Protectorate, I firmly believe you will enjoy this series. There are definite similarities (and enough differences to avoid feeling like a dupe). Like Alexia Tarabotti, Elizabeth Sharp is an eminently practical heroine. I do so appreciate a practical heroine who just gets on with getting on, even in the most outrageous situations. Her Scooby Doo crew is endearing (even if some of them don’t get the screen time I wish they would have), the world is interestingly developed, and the villains villainous. I did feel a little detached from the action, never fully invested in it all. But for the most part, I thoroughly enjoyed this series.
Other Reviews:
REVIEW of Miss Sharp’s Monsters Series (#1-#3) by Suzannah Rowntree
Worse, this is very much lining up to be a `Cassidy and her crew of spunky investigators’ sort of series, and as much as I liked them all well enough (especially Chuck, who you meet toward the end), Sorren—arguably the most interesting character—is perpetually underutilized. He shows up to dispense wisdom and weapons and then fades away again (even when present).
