Starred review from July 1, 2023
The Dread Penny Society's members are disappearing thanks to the crime boss known as the Tempest. M�ir�n Donnelly, secret leader of the Society, must outwit the Tempest before her friends and family wind up dead, so she recruits Fitzgerald Parkington, the newest detective at Scotland Yard. Fitz's promotion is due in part to bringing in criminals who work for the Tempest, so he's happy to team up with M�ir�n. Working together, their mutual admiration grows, complicated by the fact that Fitz is tasked with finding an Irish fugitive wanted for murder, who happens to be M�ir�n. Meanwhile, the Tempest stays one step ahead, kidnapping more Dread Penny members and M�ir�n's family and friends, until M�ir�n allows herself to be bait. VERDICT Eden's final Dread Penny Society novel (following The Bachelor and the Bride) thrills with Fitz and M�ir�n racing to solve the Tempest's deadly hide-and-seek games, while their witty and playful banter keeps their love story as spirited as the characters themselves. Highly recommended, but read the series in order.--Eve Stano
Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
July 31, 2023
The dastardly antics of a mysterious female crime lord bring together a headstrong Irishwoman and a stalwart constable in Eden’s thrilling fifth Dread Penny Society Victorian romance (after The Bachelor and the Bride). When members of the Dread Penny Society, a group of penny dreadful authors who “secretly fight for the good of the poor and voiceless,” start disappearing, their leader, Móirín Donnelly, suspects the Tempest, “London’s criminal overlord,” and turns to her friend, Constable Fitz Parkinson, for help. For Fitz, catching the Tempest would provide closure to the mystery of his grandfather’s disappearance years before, but as they home in on her, the Tempest reveals that she knows a dark secret about Móirín’s old life in Ireland. Bringing her to justice means risking letting the truth come out. The stakes are high and the plot takes many exciting turns as Móirín and Fitz decipher cryptic clues to the Tempest’s identity, and chase her and her lackeys across the city, falling in love all the while. The mystery is just as strong as the romance and the chemistry between the leads is palpable, despite the lack of sex scenes. Eden packs a punch with this one.
September 1, 2023
M�ir�n Donnelly hates asking for help, but she has no choice. Members of the Dread Penny Society have been disappearing off the streets of London without a clue as to who is responsible for their kidnappings. As the secret society's Dread Master, M�ir�n hopes that she can work out some type of mutually beneficial arrangement with Detective Constable Fitzgerald "Fitz" Parkington, who is encountering one obstacle after another in his attempts to put "The Tempest" behind bars. While working together on their investigations does bring them closer to their professional goals, it also results in a surprisingly personal revelation. The two may just have real feelings for each other. Eden (The Bachelor and the Bride, 2022) wraps up her Victorian-set Dread Penny Society series in style with a perfectly matched pair of protagonists and a danger-infused, sweetly romantic story line that includes cameo appearances from starring characters featured in previous books as well as delightful extracts from two penny dreadful stories sprinkled into the plot.
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