Karen Memery is a working girl (a “seamstress”) in a city something like San Francisco in an age where airships plough the sky, Singer have built walk-in sewing machines and mad science is licensed. One day a girl arrives at their door fleeing for her life, with her pursuer right behind her. This sets off a chain of events that include mind control, murdered street walkers and a US marshal coming to town.
There’s an awful lot to enjoy in this book. The setting starts off subtle so you hardly notice when the oversized Singer and nasty electric glove show up. Karen is a great narrator, and the book is written in her vernacular, also helping envelop you into the world of the book. It’s nice to see a story where LGBT characters are prominent, yet not playing to that (moreso since much of the book does place in a brothel), not to mention people of colour playing prominent roles (one major secondary character is black, another is Indian [from India, not Native American]). I think perhaps there was one capture/escape cycle too much but the book is very readable and a lot of fun.
