The Immorality Engine by George Mann

On the surface, life is going well for Sir Maurice Newbury, who has brilliantly solved several cases with Miss Veronica Hobbes by his side. But he has succumbed to addiction, and Veronica and Bainbridge must drag him from an opium den to investigate a series of copy-cat crimes, the criminal himself already in the morgue. Newbury thinks that the details are too perfect for it to be the work of a copycat. But how can the dead commit a crime?

My Review:

The Immorality Engine is the third book in the series that features Newbury and Hobbes and the first that I have read. It’s definitely one of the strangest books that I have read. It is set in a very atmospheric and beautifully described Victorian London but it’s also futuristic. Queen Victoria has had her life extended by engineering and is nothing like a Victoria that I had imagined. Newbury, Hobbes and Bainbridge are investigating a series of suspicious deaths and robberies when they get far too close and find themselves and loved ones in danger.
As I said earlier it is a strange novel, with not having read the earlier books I did struggle initially. But it’s also fascinating and it didn’t take long to put my lack of knowledge regarding past cases to one side and concentrate on the case I was reading about. Some parts are quite intimidating, I’m not a lover of spiders in real life and the ones that feature here are terrifying. Crime, fantasy, horror, science and romance feature and all work well together and it is a series I will be following in the future.

With thanks to Titan Books for the copy received.