The Curious Case of the Clockwork Menace

London Steampunk Series #0.5

By: Bec McMaster

Narrated by: Alison Larkin

In a Victorian London ruled by the blood-drinking elite, Perry Lowell is a logical and accomplished Nighthawk: a rogue blue blood who tracks murderers and thieves for the Guild. So when she and her charming but reckless partner, Garrett, are charged with finding a missing theater starlet, it should be a simple solve. But with an entire theater of suspects, including a flirtatious understudy, and whispers of a Clockwork Menace haunting the place, tension is brewing between the pair of them. Can they come together to solve the case - or will it be too late when the murderer turns his gaze on Perry herself?

©2014 Bec McMaster (P)2016 Tantor

Good to wet the appetite.

I look forward to Perry and Garrett's main story. This was just an appetizer for their story. The romance is light in this story, but I imagine Bec McMaster is waiting for the next book to get to the juicier details. This story took place somewhere between 3-5 years before Forged in Desire. Normally I not a fan of unrequited love stories, this book focuses more on the mystery than the romance. I think this can be a standalone book, but it would be easier to understand Bec McMaster's steampunk world concerning the bluebloods, mechs, and echelon if you read the other books first, although this book is before all of the others time wise. Narrator does a pretty good job.

As if the slow burn wasn’t slow enough

This novella is labeled as both .5 and 3.5, I think because it depends whether you want to go chronologically or in logical order. Chronologically, this takes place several years before book 1.
However, this stars two members of the Nighthawks, a supernatural vampire police force, whom we really get to know through their work in book 3 (My Lady Quicksilver). I think it works better being heard after book 3, so that the friction between the MCs is fresh in your mind leading into their story in book 4 (Forged in Desire).

The mini-mystery caper was decent, with enough misdirects and steampunk elements to keep me entertained. I dug the clockwork menace angle. I liked the Nighthawk’s version of an agent Q, and wished there was even more description of the gadgets and armaments. Unlike the full length books, this novella didn’t embrace the gothic horror vibe very much or involve the verwulfen or other series characters beyond Lynch.

The main point of this novella is to beat us over the head with the set-up of two buddy buddy cops who are meant for each other but of course can’t see what’s obvious to everyone else. All the standard tropes are there. Garrett the playboy thinks of her as just one of the boys. Perry wears pants and has to be twice as tough to be accepted among the Nighthawks (and among the predominantly male Bluebloods).
There are a few more breadcrumbs about Perry’s past, but nothing that wasn’t laid out in the previous book or better fleshed out in the next full- length book featuring Perry and Garrett’s HEA.