The Dastardly Miss Lizzie
In this 3rd installment in the Electric Empire series, Dr. Eliza Jekyll is hunting not one but two killers through the streets of steampunk London. The daughter of the infamous Henry Jekyll, Eliza shares the same secret—an alter-ego in the form of the wild and unruly Lizzie Hyde. England is on the brink of war, and from the start Eliza is on the case of a murdered scientist whose work is shrouded in secrecy and no one wants to talk. When more scientists are killed, secrets begin to emerge and some of the stories they tell threaten to destroy the monarchy and hit far too close to home for Eliza.
Adding to Eliza’s case load is the Soho Slasher case, which has yielded no clues and no suspects. As prostitute after prostitute winds up dead, Eliza begins to fear that the killer is none other than Eddie Hyde, her father’s alter-ego.
If that weren’t enough to handle, Lizzie is beginning to force her will through Eliza. As Eliza slowly unspools the threads of each case, she worries that the threads of her own sanity are untangling threatening to unravel her tenuous position within the police force and her own upcoming marriage with Royal Inspector Remy Lafayette.
There is quite a lot going on in this book. The story starts off rather slowly, but eventually the pace quickens. Coming into the series in the 3rd book, there were many unanswered questions and issues, leaving me often confused, though not enough to quit reading altogether. I enjoyed the interplay between Lizzie and Eliza and found the change in viewpoint a nice way to handle each character’s sections. This book/series will appeal to fans of historical steampunk—with sorcerers, lycanthropes and fey creatures. Just be sure to start with the first book, The Diabolical Miss Hyde.
