Jackaby by William Ritter

"All the world's a stage, as they say, and I seem to have the only seat in the house with a view behind the curtain."

Mythical creatures in a historical setting? A character that sounds like Sherlock? Spunky female lead? 

Yes please. 

Stats:

Genre: Paranormal Historical Crime 

Feelings: Light

Happiness: A lot of lines you smile at. Witty characters 

Cuteness: Light, other than characters you want to squish. 

Fast pacing: Not fast but not slow

Series: I believe so. Thank goodness.

Read if you like: Fairies, detective stories, eccentric characters, historical fantasies. Definitely recommended for lovers of Jonathan Stroud's Lockwood and Co. series

Content: Very light swearing and some bloody descriptions. No sexual content.

In one sentence... A plucky girl looking for a job and some adventures teams up with a charming though blunt detective who insists that the cause of current brutal murders are supernatural creatures.
Thoughts: The tuning fork, a grumpy frog, and a overstuffed jacket

Overall:

Rating: 5/5 stars

This review is SPOILER FREE

The Lovely bits:

The characters. Jackaby is one of my new favorite detectives ever. To me, he is a mix of Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock, TV), Henry Morgan (Forever, TV) and Lockwood (Lockwood and Co, book).

He's quite kooky and fun to read about. Every little thing he says makes you grin and shake your head because he's a fun character to read. 

Abigail Rook I was impressed with. Quite often when an author tries to write a feisty character in this setting where woman were supposed to be docile, it comes across as making the character foolish. While certain things seemed unrealistic, like the fact she ran away from home to another country, especially with rich parents, she was still a very interesting solid character. She never did things to prove herself that seemed dumb. She wanted to look out for herself and still have an adventure while doing so.

I was very pleased to find no romance in this book. Don't get me wrong, I'm a sucker for romance, and I still had quite a few possible OTP's in this book. But as soon as the character Charlie was introduced, I rolled my eyes, my inner Love Triangle and InstaLove detector immediately going off. I could see it now. The epic love triangle! Poor Abigail Rook caught between the mysterious detective, full of adventure and charm, and the handsome and sweet police officer, so kind and awkward, but still with his own secrets. SWOON! 

I was all set to gag and groan.

But no! There was no love triangle. It was refreshing to have two possible love interests in book one but have nothing more than a possible crush. There really was no love plot at all, though I'm sure there could be one in later books.

There were quite a few lines that left me staring at the page wide eyed and the immediately flipping on, eager to reach to conclusion. Which leads me on to the things I didn't like.

The Less Lovely bits;

If I was being strict about the things I was less excited about, really this would be more of a four and a half star book. But in this books case, all the things I loved overwhelmed all the things I didn't like.

There were a lot less ghosts that I expected, which was okay with me. I actually preferred more fairies this time, though I would keep that in mind if you're expecting a ghost book.

The end result...the monster behind it all...did seem a bit un-exciting to me. It wasn't dumb, but I was expecting something more unique. 

The ending did take a while to wrap up. While I enjoyed all the after events, some of it probably could have been condensed. Luckily, the ending was still satisfying, even if overly wrapped up. This is a debut author, so I am excited to see how the books progress.

Overall, I very much enjoyed this book. The prose was lovely, the historical voice spot on, and the characters engaging. 

I will happily tuck this beauty up on my shelf with my other favorites, and continue to think about the characters and creatures for days more.