This murder mystery mixes Egyptian mythology, historical
fiction, steampunk, and time travel. THE CLOCKWORK SCARAB is
set in London, 1889. When a young society lady is murdered
and another has disappeared there is not a clue to why,
besides a mysterious Egyptian Scarab. Mina Holmes and
Evaline Stoker are brought in to solve the case by Irene
Adler. Who better to figure out who is behind these crimes
than two young women from such highly qualified families?
Mina Holmes is the famed Sherlock Holmes' niece, and Evaline
Stoker is the author Bram Stoker's sister, whose family
comes from a line of vampire hunters. Colleen Gleason blends
everything together well, and makes the book have a very
Sherlock Holmes feel.
I was instantly intrigued by THE CLOCKWORK SCARAB. It
overall was more
focused on plot development than character development,
which I thought worked fine.
Mina is a very self-efficient
girl that keeps to herself and lacks a social life. She
prefers to be in her laboratory working on her next
experiment or out trying to solve a case. Evaline is much
more the description of a young society lady and plays the
part well. Even though she has been given the gift of being
a vampire hunter she has not yet been able to use it. Both
girls come across as complete opposites, but they both have
one thing in common-they strive to prove themselves.
While the two heroines come across three young men, the book
is not taken over by romance. Evaline encounters a thief,
who ends up being tremendously helpful along the way. Mina
is dealing with a mysterious foreigner and a frustrating
officer. I still don't really understand the point of the
foreigner's role in this book, but I'm hoping to learn more
in the sequel. The officer ends up becoming a good ally to
have while solving the crimes.
The villain of THE CLOCKWORK SCARAB is definitely hard to
figure out.
I'm still not sure who or what it was. I had several guesses
throughout the book and none ended up being right. I'm
hoping that more light will be shed on that matter in the
next book also.
The entire book blended well. The only problems I had with
it was the time travel aspect, the little mention of
steampunk, and the ending. I still don't understand the
reason for the time travel part of the book. It seemed to
not really serve a purpose and was just there. This book is
classified as steampunk but there is barely any reference of
it other than that they use steam power. It seemed an
irrelevant factor in the book. The ending wasn't bad; I just
wasn't satisfied with the way everything was handled with
the ending. Overall, I did love THE CLOCKWORK SCARAB. I will
definitely
be reading the next installment released in Fall 2014.
Evaline Stoker and Mina Holmes never meant to get into the
family business.
But when you're the sister of Bram
and the niece of Sherlock, vampire hunting and mystery
solving are in your blood. And when two society girls go
missing, there's no one more qualified to investigate.
Now fierce Evaline and logical Mina must resolve
their rivalry, navigate the advances of not just one but
three mysterious gentlemen, and solve murder with only one
clue: a strange Egyptian scarab. The stakes are high.
If Stoker and Holmes don't unravel why the belles of
London society are in such danger, they'll become the next
victims.
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