This lighthearted mystery with its travel agent/psychic and her occasional, unofficial partner is a good choice for cozy mystery lovers, animal lovers, and fans of the author. Recommended.
Priest, the Locus Award–winning author of Boneshaker, is known for writing horror and steampunk. Her witty mystery has a likable amateur sleuth and a strong supporting cast. For fans of Wendall Thomas’s offbeat travel agent Cyd Redondo.
Regardless of the flaws in one of its lead protagonists, this dark historical fantasy from Priest (Maplecroft; Boneshaker) features an intriguing setting and fascinating details about the Prohibition era that will draw in readers. [See Prepub Alert, 10/21/16.]
Priest (Boneshaker; Four and Twenty Blackbirds) has created an irresistible mix of horror and home improvement, with plenty of riveting details about the work of salvage operators as well as genuinely scary horror action. The difficult relationship between Dahlia and her cousin rings true, adding human drama to the mix. [See Eric Norton's SF/Fantasy Genre Spotlight, "Imagined Multiverses," LJ 8/16.—Ed.]
Not a necessity for all public libraries, but this is a good choice for library collections where horror genre titles circulate well. ["This clever premise combines genuine horror and a legendary historical character for an entertaining read," read the review of the Roc: NAL hc, LJ 8/14.]
This slight story ties in only loosely with the rest of Priest's "Clockwork Century" universe, although there are a few references to the bigger world that the author has been exploring since 2009's Boneshaker and takes place 20 years after the most recent volume, Fiddlehead. Priest does a solid job of bringing on characters briefly, exposing the secrets that doomed them, and killing them off one at a time.
One could wish that the mechanics of the infection and the goals of the creatures were a little more (can I say it?) fleshed out, but this is apparently the start of a new series from Priest (Boneshaker) so we will surely learn more about the Lovecraftian horrors lurking off the New England coast.
While elements of the story will be familiar to fantasy and steampunk fans, they blend into something very fun, particularly in this new dramatization. Recommended for listeners who enjoy sf and genre fiction. [For more on this title, see the Q&A with the author on page 46.]