Where I Discover a Heroine Who Deserves Sequels

The Hanged Man by P.N. Elrod
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this novel--I found it entertaining, fun, light (in a good way), and just the thing to carry me out of a bit of a reading slump.

I like the main character, Alex (Alexandra), very much. She is a confident, capable, courageous protagonist who is no super-hero but is resourceful, making the most of her abilities in a world that wants to hold women down. This is one of my favorite types of character. (Others in this vein: Jane herself in Stephanie Barron's Jane Austen Mysteries, Ginger Stuyvesant in Mary Robinette Kowal's Ghost Talkers, Lady Sherlock in Sherry Thomas's books, Alexia in Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series, and Mattie Ross in Charles Portis's True Grit. To name a few.) She is a "forensic psychic reader," which she uses to good effect, but she also has allies and receives timely help because... of course she can't defeat all the bad guys alone. But throughout the novel, Alex is active, useful, and clever, and she's the one driving the action, not the one making sandwiches or swooning when things get tough. I find such characters the most engaging and the most admirable, and Alex is a new favorite.

The book takes place in a fantastic Victorian Age England, a mix of steampunk and gaslamp fantasy, and the plot makes good use of the setting with lots of cool touches. Without summarizing the story, I can say that I found it a lot of fun, with excellent pacing and lots of surprises.

Ranked on a scale from "Not fun" to "Fun," this book gets all the points. 5/5--recommended.

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