Review: The Brass Queen

The Brass Queen by Elizabeth Chatsworth
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Miss Constance Haltwhistle has been financing her family's estate with her ill-gotten gains as an arms dealer called The Brass Queen. Forced by her father's continuing absence in an alternate reality to find a blue-blooded husband, or lose the estate to her uncle who has threatened to raze it to the ground, she throws herself a lavish coming-out ball, which is unfortunately marred when invisible assassins attack the ball and steal away three scientists.

US spy J. F. Trusdale has infiltrated the ball looking for the Brass Queen, he is in a position to save Constance when the assassins attack, but gets arrested for his trouble, condemned by the very woman he has saved.

But Constance and Trusdale need to work together to save the scientists and uncover who is behind the invisible assassins.

This book showed amazing world-building, unfortunately it never stopped. Absolutely everything, food, clothes, sport, etc was all 'different'. There is a large cast of wacky servants, Trusdale is a spy, masquerading as someone else and looks like a cowboy (inconspicuous much?). Constance is like the Energizer bunny she has her fingers in so many pies, heck she's even organising most of the celebrations for Queen Victoria's visit to Sheffield. I just felt the book was all 'look at this steampunk world I've created' and high-energy scene after high-energy scene with no character-building. Maybe that's a long-winded way of saying I didn't warm to Constance, nor did I see what Trusdale (eventually) found so attractive.

I finished this book because I could appreciate the world-building and I kept hoping that it would calm down and develop more of a plot and more likable characters but it kept up the frenetic pace right to the end and it was just too much. No book really needs steampunk, spies, cowboys, mad scientists, kidnapping, treason, alternate realities, polo on mechanical beasts (think Wizard Chess), pirates, invisible assassins, krakens, and Queen Victoria!

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.


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