Books

Review by Francis Sheppard

This is pure, high-spirited adventure. The setting for a large part is the opulent city of Winterfaire, part of a collaboration of countries called The Empire, where the technology, in steampunk tradition, is that of our own late-19th Century, advanced enough to maintain manned flight. It is in her rudimentary aircraft that we meet Commander Nancy Elscrook. There begins a series of fast-moving events, the first of which being the successful landing of her craft on the spreading lawns of the Beaumont residence, though be it ditching the machine in a flower bed. After which this fearless aeronaut discovers a childhood friend in Lady Euphemia Beaumont. Together they set off to solve the mystery of a gruesome double murder that had horrified the city.

These partners in investigation are perfectly matched. Lady Beaumont, sequestered for years in literary reclusiveness, has absorbed the reasoning and observation of the great detectives of fiction. The pursuit contains something of Sherlock Holmes. She is the unworldly aristocratic foil to Elscrook’s military bluster and bravery – scared yet fascinated by the grotesque and fabulous world she is led into. It is this correspondence – the physical courage in balance with the discerning – that sustains the humour of this romp of a story.