Charmain "Kit" Kittredge is surprised when deathmage Lord Lucien Dredmore asks her to help a client of his with a favor... but not as shocked as she is by the client in question. Kit reluctantly agrees to help Lady Eugenia Bestly by investigating the claim that her now-deceased husband was the monster behind the vicious Wolfman attacks. Kit soon discovers a bizarre plot as monsters meet mechanics. Will Kit uncover the perpetrator behind the Wolfmen in time to stop the plot from unfolding?

THE CLOCKWORK WOLF is the second book in Lynn Viehl's Disenchanted & Co. series but can easily be read as a standalone. While I thoroughly enjoyed the first book, Disenchanted & Co., THE CLOCKWORK WOLF incorporates both Lynn Viehl's superb steampunk world with mechanized werewolves. It would almost be impossible for THE CLOCKWORK WOLF to NOT be fabulous with the concept alone!

THE CLOCKWORK WOLF is not a romance although it does have romantic elements. Instead, it is a steampunk fantasy with monsters- really nasty monsters who have no problems with raping innocent women. Be forewarned as there are some brutal scenes but Lynn Viehl handles them spectacularly and quite tactfully. Lynn Viehl once again shows us just how limited the options for women are in her dark fantasy world- and seeing Kit rise above the limitations makes her all the more remarkable as a character.

I absolutely adore Lynn Viehl's Disenchanted & Co. series as it only gets better with this second installment, THE CLOCKWORK WOLF. I love seeing how Lynn Viehl meshes steampunk, fantasy, and magic together to craft a unique world that almost reads like an alternate history tale. THE CLOCKWORK WOLF is a phenomenal blend of genres and one I can't recommend highly enough!

Book Summary

As the proprietor of Disenchanted & Co. in a steampunk version of America, Charmian “Kit” Kittredge makes her living solving magical crimes. But when a snobbish lady begs for help, saving her reputation might very well cost Kit her life.

Doing a favor for deathmage Lucien Dredmore, Kit agrees to interview a newly widowed lady as a potential client. Upon meeting, however, she learns that the woman in question is none other than Lady Eugenia Bestly, president of the Rumsen Ladies Decency Society— someone who once led a vicious campaign to ruin Kit’s life. Ironically Lady Bestly now lives in fear herself, for the press is about to unmask her husband as the savage “Wolfman” who died while terrorizing the city.

As monstrous rampages continue to occur, Kit soon determines there is more than one Wolfman, and that they may themselves be victims of evil players. While avoiding both mechanized assassins and attempts by Dredmore and Chief Inspector Tom Doyle to take her under their protection, Kit follows a tangled path that leads from a prestigious gentlemen’s club fronting a hellish secret to a vengeful native tribe and dangerous, ancient magics.