Dead Ringer (Gaslamp Gothic #5) by Kat Ross
ABOUT THE BOOK
by Kat Ross
(Gaslamp Gothic #5)
Published by: Acorn Publishing
Publication date: December 13, 2019
Genres: Adult, Fantasy,
Summer 1889. Harrison Fearing Pell hoped for adventure when she signed on with the Society for Psychical Research as an occult investigator. Slogging through New York’s sewers in pursuit of a “mud man” wasn’t exactly what she had in mind. But the reeking monster terrorizing the dance halls of the Tenderloin leads her to an even more peculiar mystery — and the last man on earth Harry wishes to become entangled with.
James Moran is a prodigy in music, mathematics . . . and crime. Harry’s older sister, the famed detective Myrtle Fearing Pell, has vowed to put him behind bars. But Harry owes Moran a personal debt, so when he demands her aid she can hardly refuse. It turns out that the brilliant black sheep of New York Society is part of a secret club at Columbia College whose members have started dying in bizarre ways that may not be accidents.
Thus begins one of the strangest cases of Harry’s career, a tale of murder, cold-blooded revenge and fairytale bogeymen to make the Brothers Grimm shudder. As the bodies pile up, each preceded by sightings of the victim’s doppelgänger, Harry and her stalwart friend John Weston must race against time to save a man who arguably deserves his macabre fate.
MY REVIEW
What an exciting and unusual read about metaphysical detectives in the late 1800s filled with monsters, witches, and doppelgangers.
Harrison “Harry” Fearing Pell and her partner John Weston work for the American Society for Psychical Research who assist London’s Ninth Detective Division, otherwise known as the Night Squad specializing in bizarre cases. The case of the mud man who is terrorizing unsuspecting Londoners, unfortunately, lives in the sewers where we meet Harry and John. While they investigate the freakish monster, another case appears to be connected involving the unusual deaths of Columbia graduates who are part of a group called the Pythagoras Society which was formed for companionship against bullies at the University.
When Harry receives a special request for a private investigator from James, Moran, one of the most notorious, handsome, and prominent men of New York Society and a member of the Pythagoras Society targeted for death, her job and her life are in jeopardy.
Though this is Book 5 in the Gaslamp Gothic series, it can be read as a standalone. It is my first book by Kat Ross and it’s a fun, fast-paced who-done-it full of twists and turns into the mystical world and late-nineteenth-century detective work. If you enjoy clean detective fiction with a paranormal twist, pick this series up.
Thank you to Ms. Ross for giving me the opportunity to read this book with no expectation of a positive review.
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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 Fourth Element and Fourth Talisman fantasy series, the Gaslamp Gothic paranormal mysteries, and the dystopian thriller Some Fine Day. She loves myths, monsters and doomsday scenarios. Check out Kat’s Pinterest page for the people, places and things that inspire her books.
Follow Kat on her website, Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads.
