This takes place in late 19th century London. Julia works as a waitress and dancer on an airship, while Georgina, her sister, cleans houses. Julia is utterly shocked to come home one evening and find her sister dead. Although Constable Aloysius (Al) Grant gives her as many updates on the case as he's able, there isn't much for him to say. The police keep hitting dead ends.

Just when it looks like Georgy's killer will go free, Lady Harriet Law shows up on Julia's doorstep and offers to take the case pro bono. Julia accepts the offer. After all, Lady Law has a phenomenal success rate, having solved 100% of her 650 cases. It's that same success rate that, in part, inspires Grant's distrust. How does Lady Law come to her conclusions? Why did she offer her services to Julia in particular? And how does the disappearance of Josh, the young assistant of the famed explorer Horace Holly, figure into all of this?

Lady Law was presented as a Holmesian sort of character, except that her one on-page instance of making deductions in a manner similar to Holmes was never closely examined. She simply told Julia “This is what I can conclude about that person way over there, based on this, this, and this detail” and then expected Julia to accept what she said as fact. Julia, to her credit, knew that Lady Law hadn't proved anything, but she decided to keep working with the woman anyway because she didn't have any other options if she wanted to find her sister's killer.

Appleton laid out a lot of reasons for readers to be suspicious of Lady Law. In addition to her lack of proven on-page deductions, no one had ever been able to replicate her leaps of logic, even though her final results always turned out to be correct. Then there was her ridiculous success rate. Absolutely no one is that successful that often. Clearly there was something fishy going on. This being a steampunk story, there seemed to be a couple likely explanations. I rejected one of them early on, and the other one turned out to be Lady Law's secret. So that was kind of disappointing. I had hoped that Appleton would manage to throw something at me that I hadn't even considered.

Because I didn't bother to check the how the publisher had tagged it, I had sort of expected there to be more romance. Instead I got Al Grant acting a bit standoffish towards Julia during their first date, until he suddenly wasn't. It was a bit weird, although I was grateful Appleton didn't push them into bed. Still, it was primarily an okay story. The chase scene in the airship was a bit hard to follow, but I loved the chase scene through the giant mechanical solar system.

The problem was the ending. First, what was the point of everybody coming across the villain while they were engaged in an enthusiastic foursome, complete with a bit of bondage? The person's sexual preferences weren't important to the story at all, so it just gave everyone something to blush over and be shocked by. Second, what the hell was with that ending? How was that a good outcome? “Oh, we'll put this person in prison for doing X, but they can get early parole if they teach a bunch of other people to also do X.” Brilliant. And how do Julia and the rest deal with it all? By leaving everything behind and going to Africa. Where in Africa? I'm going to guess Namibia based on prior mentions in the story and some quick googling of “Ovambo.” Still, would it have killed the author to have mentioned Namibia even once in the epilogue? Instead it was just Africa, over and over. Finally, I wish Appleton had had the good grace to leave the name “Holmes” out of the ending. I assumed he meant Sherlock, and I hated the idea of Sherlock Holmesbecoming the protege of a morally bankrupt fake detective like Lady Law.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )

very confused jumble of steampunk and mystery. sadly, not impressed. ( )

Set in Victorian England, The Mysterious Lady Law tells the story of Julia, a young dancer who returns home to find her beloved younger sister Georgina murdered.

Stepping in to solve the case is Lady Law, an investigator who has trodden on the toes of the police by solving every case she has taken on. When Lady Law says she will work for free, in spite of Inspector Slatham's reservations, Julia is only happy to agree.

Sir Horace Holly, a renowned scientist, finds that his young assistant Rupert was one of Georgina's beaus, and he, too, has gone missing. When he, Julia, and the inspector team up, they end up investigating a mystery that could solve the puzzle of who Lady Law actually is and how she solves her crimes so easily.

This is a short novella where quite a lot happens. It's a bit confusing at times, and there were some scenes that I could have done without which greatly took away from my enjoyment; however, up until those happened, I rather liked it. For me, there was no need for the sex scene depicted, and definitely not a need for the profanity that was used; it's Steampunk, not urban fantasy/paranormal. If I look past those, however, it was a decent, enjoyable read.

QUOTE:

"I find it best to set trends, not follow them." ( )

"Eh." "S'Okay." Such were my considerably underwhelmed reactions at the conclusion of this little steam punk novella. Parts of the book I thought were totally random and downright weird (and not in a fun way, but in a huh? way) and the ending was just so so. But there were aspects I really enjoyed. I thought the main character (not the titular character Lady Law, she, I didn't care for) Julia, was interesting and her love interest, while nothing to write home about, was engaging. The whodunit mystery at the center of the book was not all that mysterious, but the means by which Lady Law solves mysterious (and whether or not she is a good guy) proves to be the far more interesting question...

To read the full review over at The Book Buff, click here: http://thebookbuff.blogspot.com/2011/04/mysterious-lady-law.html

-Kate the Book Buff ( )

Thanks again to the lovely folks at Carina Press and netGalley for this. I've very appreciative!

In a time of grand airships and steam-powered cars, the death of a penniless young maid will hardly make the front page. But part-time airship waitress and music hall dancer Julia Bairstow is shattered by her sister's murder. When Lady Law, the most notorious private detective in Britain, offers to investigate the case pro bono, Julia jumps at the chance-even against the advice of Constable Al Grant, who takes her protection surprisingly to heart.

Lady Law puts Scotland Yard to shame. She's apprehended Jack the Ripper and solved countless other cold-case crimes. No one knows how she does it, but it's brought her fortune, renown and even a title. But is she really what she claims to be-a genius at deducting? Or is Al right and she is not be trusted?

Julia is determined to find out the truth, even if it means turning sleuth herself-and turning the tables on Lady Law...

I was very excited to read The Mysterious Lady Law. It sounded like a cool mix of steampunk, mystery, and romance, and I was stoked to give Robert Appleton a try. Something you need to know up front: this is a novella, not a novel.

Overall, I feel very ambivalent about The Mysterious Lady Law. I really liked the set up, particularly the first chapter with the titular Lady Law and Holly, but the story built up and up and then let me down. This doesn't mean I have only negative feelings -- just that I found the novella uneven. I really enjoyed parts of the story, like Julia's relationship with Constable Al Grant and all of the scenes with Holly, but I found the resolution a little rushed and somewhat forced. The reason why Lady Law has such a good track record is a fun explanation but there were definitely aspects of the climax that left me underwhelmed. On the other hand, though, Robert Appleton does a great job of describing the novella's setting with a lot of vivid imagery and strong prose so I'm happy that I gave The Mysterious Lady Law a shot.

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