Friday, September 2, 2011

The Strange Case of Finley Jayne



I found this book on my boyfriend's Kindle even though neither of us ordered it. So, I read it. It's about (surprise!) Finley Jayne, a young woman in steampunk Britain who has superstrength and a supertemper that cost her a job, and then immediately get her a way better one. She is hired by a woman concerned about her daughter's widower fiance, and thinks Finley is the right person to sniff out any weird stuff. I've never read a steampunk novel before and I'm not an expert on the culture so I can't say if it was anachronistic. However, I did enjoy the development of the setting and steampunk trappings, like the automaton horses and robot servants. Some of the character motivations come off as flimsy and unconvincing, but the heroine is pretty solid and it's a short, light read with a little bit of creepiness at the end.

This book is a prequel to The Girl in the Steel Corset, a longer story about Finley that looks like it explains more about the origin of her powers, which is not addressed in this book.