TL;DR Review: Sherlock Holmes meets the League of Extraordinary Gentlewomen. A gothic mystery that sucks you in, with marvelous characters that keep you coming back for more.
Synopsis:
In this fresh-yet-familiar gothic tale—part historical fantasy, part puzzle-box mystery—the worlds of Dracula and Sherlock Holmes collide in a thrilling exploration of feminine power.
At the dawn of the twentieth century in Paris, Samantha Harker, daughter of Dracula’s killer, works as a researcher for the Royal Society for the Study of Abnormal Phenomena. But no one realizes how abnormal she is. Sam is a channel into the minds of monsters: a power that could help her solve the gruesome deaths plaguing turn-of-the-century Paris—or have her thrown into an asylum.
Sam finds herself assigned to a case with Dr. Helena Moriarty, daughter of the criminal mastermind and famed nemesis of Sherlock Holmes and a notorious detective whom no one wants to work with on account of her previous partners’ mysterious murders. Ranging from the elite clubs of Paris to the dark underbelly of the catacombs, their investigation sweeps them into a race to stop a Beast from its killing rampage, as Hel and Sam are pitted against men, monsters, and even each other. But beneath their tenuous trust, an unmistakable attraction brews. Is trusting Hel the key to solving the murder, or is Sam yet another pawn in Hel’s game?
Full Review:
Step aside Watson and Holmes; the age of Harker and Moriarty has dawned!
Strange Beasts brings everything I loved about the Sherlock Holmes mysteries (including my old favorite villain, Dr. Moriarty himself) and adds a dash of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The result is something truly spectacular and enjoyable.
Samantha Harker, daughter of Jonathan and Mina Harker, has grown up knowing about and, eventually, wanting to help eradicate monsters. She has joined The Society, a British organization that hunts down, captures, and kills monsters around the globe. She does it to carry on her parents’ legacy, but also hoping she will one day be able to find her grandfather, who vanished mysteriously and left only a sequence of numbers as a message.
When that exact same sequence pops up on the graffiti of a snarling wolf painted over a corpse clearly killed by some monster, Sam ventures out of the safety of her library and into the field to find clues. Her partner is none other than Dr. Moriarty—Dr. Helena Moriarty, daughter to the infamous villain himself.
From their first meeting, we’re treated to a series of deductions that could have been ripped straight out of a Sherlock Holmes novel (this is very much a compliment!), but also the addition of some magic and mysticism that promises fascinating developments as the story evolves.
Together, the two of them set off for Paris to begin their investigation into the mysterious and grisly murders. And inevitably, things go very, very wrong!
I won’t spoil the mystery for you, but suffice it to say, it combines both the Sherlock Holmes-style bizarre-but-real and all the extraordinary arcane and supernatural elements of stories like Dracula, Dorian Gray, and the very first fantasy books ever penned.
The setting is fascinating, too—the story takes place in the glitz and glamor of Paris in the early 1900s, with all the cultural quirks and foibles that characterized that era.
But it’s the characters that make this story truly sing.
Sam Harker is hiding a secret: she is a channel who can see visions from anything she touches that is imprinted with strong memories, such as a blood-covered jewel or a murder victim’s lifeless hand. This secret would get her banned from The Society and hunted down, so she has guarded it carefully. Yet as she’s working with Dr. Moriarty—or Hel—she tries to talk herself around to lowering her guards and trusting her companion. Even though Hel has done nothing (or very little) to earn it, Sam’s optimistic nature makes her want to try it anyways. And when she does, it’s just the thing to break through the walls Hel has built around herself as a defense mechanism against the world that sees her as nothing more than the daughter of Europe’s most notorious villain.
Hel’s story is incredibly fascinating, giving us a Sherlock Holmes character but with all the psychological issues that would stem from being raised by Dr. Moriarty. Sam is just the thing that will bring her out of her shell—albeit very, very slowly.
I loved every minute of this book—from the colorful setting to the fascinating Sherlock Holmes-esque mystery to the development of the characters’ relationship—and can’t wait to be back for more in future installments!
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