THE DASTARDLY MISS LIZZIE is book three in the
Electric Empire
series. For those of you that are
unfamiliar with this series the books are about Dr. Eliza
Jekyll/Miss Lizzie Hyde. Yes, they are the same person,
but if you are familiar with the classic book DR. JEKYLL
AND MR. HYDE by Robert Louis Stevenson the names of
the main characters will ring a bell. Eliza is the daughter of
Dr. Jekyll. And, like her father Eliza has a wild alter
ego, Lizzie. Through the books Eliza tried to
control Lizzie, but it's hard to control someone that is
part of you. And, sometimes, she needs the wild Lizzie to
take control.
In THE DASTARDLY MISS LIZZIE is Eliza chasing not one
killer but two. A dangerous madman that's killing
scientists and the Soho Slasher that leaves no witnesses
but a growing list of dead bodies. The question is why
are the scientists getting killed and who is killing
them? And, how come no one seems to be able to catch
the Soho Slasher? For Eliza both cases are puzzling and
the most troublesome is that she starts to suspect that
her "father" Eddie Hyde could be the Soho Slasher...
Meanwhile her fiance Remy Lafayette is in Paris on a
secret mission fueled by trying to find out who corrupted
his brother and made him a traitor. But, could this case
make Remy change and turn him into a traitor? In the end
it is a question of time, will Eliza manage to stop both
the killers and save the world from evil sorcerers...
The book left me a bit exhausted but in a good way. I
love how the book starts off with an even pace, gradually
the pace starts to accelerate until finally it feels like
you can't turn the pages fast enough because there is so
much action and much is revealed and when I turned the
last page I did wonder how on earth would I be able to
review this book. There is just so much going on, so many
sidelines that all starts to merge at the end. I think
if you already like this series will you love this
book. However, if you haven't read the previous two books
it can be hard to understand everything going on, the
connections between the characters, mentioning of past
events. But, if you are after a great steampunk series,
then seek no further because you have found it! Viola
Carr has not only created memorable characters, she has
also created a wonderful atmospheric world, a world with
strange inventions and magic, this is steampunk at its
finest!
Dr. Eliza Jekyll must turn to her dark side, Miss Lizzie
Hyde, to stop a madman who’s targeting London’s most
important scientists and sorcerers, terrorizing the city
with dark magic, in this third Electric Empire novel—a
dazzlingly original steampunk fantasy set in the gritty
world of alternate Victorian London, with echoes of H. G.
Wells’s classic, The Time Machine.
Being two people in one body isn’t easy. Metropolitan Police
crime scene physician Eliza Jekyll is trying to maintain a
semblance of control, even as her rebellious second self,
Lizzie, grows increasingly wild—threatening the respectable
Eliza’s reputation and her marriage to Remy Lafayette, the
Royal Society investigator and occasional lycanthrope. With
England on the brink of war, Remy’s away in sorcery-riddled
Paris on a secretive mission that grows ever more sinister.
Has he been an enemy agent all along? Or is coping with her
secret divided self finally driving Eliza mad?
Eliza needs her mind clear and sharp if she’s to catch an
evil genius who is killing eminent scientists. The chase
uncovers a murky world of forbidden books, secret
laboratories, and a cabal of fanatical inventors whose work
could change the world—or destroy it—and who may hold
answers to Eliza’s mysterious past.
As sorcery-wielding terrorists attack London, Eliza
discovers her own enemies are closing in, driving her to
desperate measures—enlisting the aid of the wily,
resourceful, mercurial Lizzie—to thwart the killer. But
Lizzie’s got her own life now, and true to her nature, will
resort to the devious and diabolical to keep it. Even if it
means throwing Eliza to the wolves, and letting the world
burn. . . .