Mina, meanwhile, wants to think about it, make plans, be sure, test, hypothesize, experiment. Her family seems to have forgotten her – her mother is gone, her father never home and her uncle always busy.Įvaline is impetuous, wants to tackle problems head on with might and brawn and itches for a good fight. Mina is lanky and gangly and clumsy and awkward, the inheritor of the Holmes’ nose, in all its beak-like glory. Evaline is a conventional beauty, well versed in social graces, surrounded and supported by a loving family, and incredibly strong. R ELATED: Throwing Steampunk and Gothic Romance into a Blender: A Guest Post by Kristen Brand Opposites Repel and AttractĮvaline and Mina are in many ways opposites. The scarab leads our capable heroines into a secret society of Egyptian goddess worship, where a stolen goddess statue apparently has supernatural powers and a villain worthy of Moriarty – the Ankh – is mystery and danger personified.

The two are brought into an uneasy partnership by Irene Adler (yes, “the woman” from the Sherlock Holmes story), who has been tasked with a clandestine assignment from the Princess of Wales to investigate the mysterious murders/suicides and disappearances of a number of aristocratic young ladies.

These two gifted young women hook up to solve crime – that’s the book in a nutshell. The Clockwork Scarab is set in an alternate Victorian-era London, England, where steam is king, electricity has been banned, Bram Stoker has a vampire-slaying younger sister named Evaline, Sherlock Holmes is real and has a brilliant niece by the name of Alvermina, called Mina for short. RELATED: Book Review: The Spiritglass Charade An Alternative Historical Reality The fourth book in the series arrives on bookshelves this July, so there is definitely time to catch up on this delightful series. The Clockwork Scarab builds a world and a fantastical reality that is playful and engaging. YA Book Review: The Clockwork Scarab (2013) by Colleen GleasonĬolleen Gleason’s first novel in her Stoker and Holmes series is fun, good, good fun.

The clockwork scarab