Dead Ringer

Dead Ringer is the first Kat Ross novel I've read so immediately I can say that, although it is the fifth in its series, the story works very well as a standalone! (On the strength of it I have now got myself the first Gaslamp Gothic book, The Daemoniac, so I can start to catch up on the rest of the series.) Dead Ringer is set in late 1880s New York and I loved this historical aspect which fitted surprisingly comfortably with the paranormal investigations undertaken by Harry and her colleague, John. There's a touch of the Sherlock Holmes about the atmosphere and Ross shows us New York scenes ranging from the refined Columbia College library to a crimelord's nightclub, and starts us off chasing a monster through the city's smelly sewers. Charming!

Harry is a character to whom I could easily warm. She doesn't always make good decisions, but her heart is in the right place. Her prickly sister, Myrtle, is fun to read about too and I enjoyed their verbal sparring with and about the criminally-minded Moran. The mystery itself is great. It has enough complexity that Ross kept me guessing at the complete answer pretty much until the end of the story, but I liked that the pace didn't get bogged down with too much unnecessary explanation. I appreciated the little details that made such a fantastic story feel plausible. I would recommend Dead Ringer to fans of Vered Ehsani's Society of Paranomals series (and vice versa) and am now looking forward to finding out how Harry's paranormal investigation journey began.