With an addictive mix of crime and steampunk, Keith W Dickinson’s debut novel gives the tonic needed to offset the plague-anxiety ridden world we’re having to deal with. The gin, however, you have to supply yourself.
Don’t let the genre put you off. Unlike many steampunk-based novels, this is about the characters, not industrialisation, top hats and corsets. Fear not, steampunk aficionados, there are more devices than you can aim a 
blunderbuss at …and yes, there are airships.
The Blurb
John Sinister, a man with friends in all the wrong places, is hired to look into some shady goings on at the airship factory. It might be nothing, but with the fortunes of the greatest inventor in the Britannic Empire at stake, you can bet John will do his best to get to the bottom of things (even if his best might generously be described as mildly shambolic). But when people start dying, and it looks like there might be a killer on the loose, John has to team up with Dexter, the world’s only walking, talking mechanical cat, to try and figure out what the hell is going on. He’d rather not, but it doesn’t seem to be up to him. Dexter is going to make sure this “lazy sack of meat” does the job he was hired for if it’s the last thing he ever does. With secret societies, arrogant aristocrats, and criminal chocolatiers to contend with, John and Dexter are going to have to keep their wits about them if they’re going to come out of this alive. And if John happens to fall in love with his employer’s daughter along the way, well nobody said catching a killer was going to be easy now did they?
Keith W Dickinson’s skill in portraying the world as his characters interact with the Victorian setting of Hammersymth is only the start of what makes this book for me. With just enough hint of industrialisation, the focus remains on John Sinister and Dexter the mechanical cat. Banter between John and his friend Henry runs smoothly, hinting at John’s not-so-suitable-for-a-gentleman past. Until, that is, Henry’s untimely death.
While bodies keep materialising, it is the death of Henry that brings in the industrial giant Mr Donald Chard. Henry’s father tasks John to discover more. Again, the crime side of the novel leads you through the pages and the author plays whodunnit well enough to keep the reader engaged. He introduces new suspects right until the final reveal rounds off a splendid novel. Readers of crime might sense the culprit before the reveal, but even that doesn’t detract from the grand adventure.
Curiously, the stand out scene for me is the initial meeting with Police Detectives Murtaugh and Hardigan. So much is said between the three that doesn’t make it to the page, and the discussions between Hardigan and Sinister are indicative of the top level dialogue throughout.
Dexter and Sinister create two sides of the shield protecting Hammersymth from all the ill in the world. There is so much to love about this, from the automaton cat to the nefarious chocolatiers. I have no doubt in my mind that the sequel will be just as good, and that the series as a whole has huge potential, because the amount of world building involved in this first outing begs for further adventures. Keith W Dickinson will only grow as an author, and I look forward to reading more.
Highly recommended.
Author Site: https://keithwdickinson.com/
Twitter: @keithwdickinson
ASIN: B08FG9TWPH
Publisher: Amazon
Review copy courtesy of the author.
Review by Shellie Horst © 2020 SFFWorld
