Just when you think you know everything about demon possession and the travails of those nifty paladins who battle them across time and space, there comes a book that throws much of that into a tizzy.
So, we've got an engineer, his cleaner and an automaton possessed by the spirit of someone who has pledged to fight interdimensional demons and one of those very same demons possessing none other than H.H. Holmes., the guy who built a big old complicated murder mansion. That's where this steampunkish, Lovecraftian, gaslight-y horror mystery scooby-style adventure starts, and it only gets weirder from there.
Now, I know this sounds like a bit much, but bear with me. What holds this story together and keeps it from flapping its way off into gonzo-land is Sarah's ability to ground the characters. Each one comes across as flawed, but driven people who fit well into the world. None of them are perfect, they mess up a fair amount in fact, and they feel very real. Also, there is a ton of heart to the affair, which is my buttered jam on rye toast.
Please keep in mind that it is taking way to much of my personal reserves of restraint to not just blabber on an on about that end set piece, which is super bonkers and just plain wonderful.
On the down side, it does have that Victorian staunchiness to the prose that may put some people off a bit and names like Zuzanna, Elspeth and Archibald were a bit distracting to me. Also, I really would have liked one more chapter to round out Archibald and Zuzanna's narrative, as that felt too truncated. None of those are story killers, though, and I had a good amount of fun with this.
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