A review by kblincoln
The Clockwork Dagger by Beth Cato
4.0
As I was reading this last night I realized I'd probably read it before, but couldn't find a review. Ah well, better late than never, and I didn't mind re-reading this one at all because it's a lark of a story with a very determined, young heroine with principles and honor, and a satchel full of magical herbs she can use to heal people in an adventurous Steampunkery tale.
Yep, time to buckle on your gears and leather for this fast-paced, murder-mystery-on-a-dirigible tale of Octavia Leander and her companions (which include a hunky steward with a tragic past, a mysterious and cranky old lady and a gremlin with a thing for silver).
Octavia is a powerful medician in a country still reeling from a long and destructive war against a neighboring territory called the Waste. She's traveling incognito to a remote village where she hopes to make a home. But the first person she meets on her dirigible is connected to the tragic death of her parents, and then gremlins attack the ship and Octavia angers all the passengers by defending them, and then someone tries to murder her berth-mate Viola Stout, and someone tries to murder her, and that handsome steward is always lurking around.
And then the handsome steward invites her to see a shining road as they pass over it and not enough hanky or panky results (in my humble opinion) which is really the only major quibble I have for this book. Sometimes the references to the gremlin seemed a bit too prophetic of a neat, deus-ex-machina role he later played, and sometimes huge revelations kind of got glossed over and didn't seem to impact the characters as much as I thought they should....
But the villains were nicely dastardly and the author does a great job of tying together Octavia's religion and the villain's plan at the end...so the tepid romance is forgiven. On to the next one!
Yep, time to buckle on your gears and leather for this fast-paced, murder-mystery-on-a-dirigible tale of Octavia Leander and her companions (which include a hunky steward with a tragic past, a mysterious and cranky old lady and a gremlin with a thing for silver).
Octavia is a powerful medician in a country still reeling from a long and destructive war against a neighboring territory called the Waste. She's traveling incognito to a remote village where she hopes to make a home. But the first person she meets on her dirigible is connected to the tragic death of her parents, and then gremlins attack the ship and Octavia angers all the passengers by defending them, and then someone tries to murder her berth-mate Viola Stout, and someone tries to murder her, and that handsome steward is always lurking around.
And then the handsome steward invites her to see a shining road as they pass over it and not enough hanky or panky results (in my humble opinion) which is really the only major quibble I have for this book. Sometimes the references to the gremlin seemed a bit too prophetic of a neat, deus-ex-machina role he later played, and sometimes huge revelations kind of got glossed over and didn't seem to impact the characters as much as I thought they should....
But the villains were nicely dastardly and the author does a great job of tying together Octavia's religion and the villain's plan at the end...so the tepid romance is forgiven. On to the next one!