The Clockwork Wolf-Lynn Viehl

The Clockwork Wolf Lynn Viehl Pocket, Feb 25 2014, $7.99 ISBN 9781476722375 In Toriana, Deathmage Lucien Dredmore asks, demands being more accurate, that Disenchanted & Co. dispeller Charmian “Kit” Kittredge interview and protect wealthy widow Lady Eugenia Bestly. The president of the Rumsen Ladies Decency Society, Bestly needs protection from those who will come after her once the media releases the news that she is the affluent arrogant surviving spouse of the savage Wolfman. Ironically, Kit is one of those less fortunate Lady Bestly tried to destroy for being indecent. Lady Bestly insists someone used magic to turn her docile caring husband into the vile lethal Wolfman. Kit makes inquiries into the creation of these feral wolf-men with assistance from her BFF brothel owner Carina Eagle, her longtime buddy and self-anointed protector police Chief Inspector Tommy Doyle, and Harry her grandfather the ghost; also accompanying her while ordering her about is the dreaded deathmage Dredmore. At the same the creator observes her progress and prepares to destroy this interfering dispeller and her allies. The latest Her Ladyship's Curse steampunk adventure (see Disenchanted & Co.) is an exciting alternate vision of America in which M&M is not candy or the 1960’s Yankees, but instead magic and mechanical gizmos. Fast-paced with a fascinating emerging romantic threesome, fans will enjoy Kit’s tour of Lynn Viehl’s dark San Francisco (Rumsen) though the excessive cast makes it difficult to keep track as to who’s who especially early on. Harriet Klausner