Title: She Be Damned
Author: M.J. Tjia
Genre: Historical Mystery
Publication Date: Aug 1st, 2017
Pages: 288 (Paperback)
Publishers: Pantera Press
Rating:
London, 1863: prostitutes in Waterloo area are turning up dead, their sexual organs mutilated and removed. When another girl goes missing, fears grow that the killer may have claimed their latest victim. The police are at a loss and so it falls to courtesan and professional detective Heloise Chancey to investigate. With the assistance of her trusty Chinese maid, Amah Li Leen, Heloise inches closer to the truth. But when Amah is implicated in the brutal plot, Heloise must reconsider who she can trust before the killer strikes again.
So, I do really like this cover but honestly, I like the cover by Legend Press/Legend Times Group a lot more! I will put a picture below. On goodreads, it says that copy won’t release until July 2018, but you can already purchase it through Book Depository! Links at the bottom of the post.
I really enjoyed the writing of this book! It sucked me in completely!
I did start this book a while ago but I only got 15% into it and I put it down. I was in a bit of a reading slump and decided to put it down and read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban illustrated edition first in case my slump affected how I felt about this book. But after jumping back into this book yesterday I flew through it!!
** The writing is very detailed and very graphic. I would not recommend this to someone that is uneasy with graphic content but it didn’t worry me. This book talks a lot about sex, violence, horrible stuff happening to people and has a fair bit of negative language directed towards some of the characters. So just be aware of that before going into this book**
The plot was also amazing! It again drags you in. I wouldn’t exactly say it was action packed but it had an awesome balance of action and information which is perfect for a mystery.
Besides that, I can’t really talk about the plot as it’s a mystery and I don’t want to spoil anything!
Heloise is an awesome character. She is so intelligent and does not let being a female hold her down. She still gets in and gets shit done and doesn’t wait around for the males to do it.
I didn’t like the short romance of sorts that happened. I didn’t love the guy that was the love interest. He actually kind of annoyed me.
Amah was an awesome character. She was kinda sassy and sarcastic and I loved it.
There were tonnes of other more minor characters but as a lot of them are possible suspects, you automatically kind of don’t like them just in case they are the murderer. So I can’t really say if I actually like them or not because of that!
I hope that makes sense!
So I did really enjoy a majority of the book but there was one thing that made it a bit difficult to read. That was that I had such a similar feeling to Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco. I recently read that book and loved it. There were a lot of similarities between the two. We have a female, set in the past and they are battling against being looked down upon due to their sex. The victims of the murders are prostitutes in both books and the way they have been murdered in similar ways too. In SBD they have their sexual organs cut out and in SJTR the victims have different organs removed after they are killed. So as you can see, I felt a strong similarity! Not that that is really bad as I loved SJTR, but it did get slightly confusing at times when thinking about the events in the book.
So yeah, overall I enjoyed the plot, I loved the writing and the MC was awesome!
I don’t know if this book will be part of a series. The book kind of ended off as if there will be a second book, but it doesn’t say so on Goodreads. However, it is called ‘She Be Damned: A Heloise Chancey Mystery’ which makes me think it will be part of a series like the Poirot and Miss Marple series by Agatha Christie.
I hope there will be a second book as I would 100% pick that up!
I was provided with an eGalley of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you very much to Pantera Press & NetGalley for this opportunCheck out
check out the Pantera Press Website where you can purchase or get details on the book!
**Cover 1 is the first cover shown above and Cover 2 is the 2nd cover shown.**
You can purchase the book here:
Amazon – Paperback & Kindle (Cover 1)
HAVE YOU READ THIS BOOK? WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON IT?!
IF YOU ARE GOING TO SHARE SPOILERS IN THE COMMENTS THEN PLEASE WARN IT SO OTHERS DON’T GET SPOILED!
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The second cover art is really nice. I also like it more than the first cover. The book sounds quite interesting, but I probably won’t be picking it up, not my thing, I’m not a fan of modern books set in 19th century.
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That’s fair enough. I love a good mystery. Doesn’t worry me when it’s set 😂
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