The Sinister Mystery of the Mesmerizing Girl, by Theodora Goss (Saga Press)
The “league of
extraordinary gentlewomen” (aka, The Athena Club) continues as, fresh from
their last adventure, our stalwart heroines must thwart a dastardly plot to
mesmerize the world and place an imposter on Queen Victoria’s throne. Mary
Jekyll (yes, that daughter), Diana Hyde (her sister), Beatrice Rappaccini (“The
Poisonous Girl”), Catherine Moreau (panther-turned-human), and Justine
Frankenstein (who, despite her enormous size, is a gentle vegetarian
philosopher) are hot on the chase to rescue not only the entire British Empire,
but their friend, Sherlock Holmes. With occasional homage references to H.
Rider Haggard, Bram Stoker, Robert Louis Stevenson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and
Mary Shelley. Hugely entertaining, especially the digressions in which the
various characters kibbutz about Catherine’s writing narrative.
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