She Be Damned: A Heloise Chancey Mystery

by M. J. Tjia

Longlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger
'An intelligent and intriguing crime novel set in the heart of Victorian London. Its atmospheric and twisting narrative had me hooked.' Sarah Ward

London, 1863: prostitutes in the Waterloo area are turning up dead, their sexual organs mutilated and removed. When another girl goes missing, fears grow that the killer may have claimed their latest victim.

The police are at a loss and so it falls to courtesan and professional detective, Heloise Chancey, to investigate.

With the assistance of her trusty Chinese maid, Amah Li Leen, Heloise inches closer to the truth. But when Amah is implicated in the brutal plot, Heloise must reconsider who she can trust, before the killer strikes again.

Tjia brings us a pacey and exciting murder mystery set in Victorian London. This historical crime thriller sees a young female detective work with the police to evade a violent killer.

REVIEWS

‘Tjia transports the reader to the mid nineteenth century so effectively through all the senses; sound, smell, touch, vision and feeling; contrasting the opulence of London’s Mayfair with the squalor of Thames-side Waterloo ... The writing is accomplished and economic, taking the reader on various twists and turns on the journey ... We have discovered a new sleuth in Heloise Chancey.’ David Evans, author of The Wakefield Series, shortlisted for CWA Debut Dagger in 2013

‘Compulsive reading ... I was enthralled from the very first page. A beautifully written book with such authenticity, that each page whisked me back in time. The story galloped along as I followed the characters that were all too real. I could not put it down.’ Caroline Mitchell, author of the DC Jennifer Knight series

‘A gripping and refreshingly different historical crime novel.’ Angela Buckley, author of The Real Sherlock Holmes

‘Fun, thrilling and very well written – She Be Damned is a carefully crafted adventure that I hugely enjoyed, and I look forward to seeing what the delightful Mrs Chancey gets up to next.’ Luke Marlowe, TheBookbag

‘If you like your heroines flamboyant, your servants mouthy, and your murders bloody, She Be Damned is the perfect book to get both your historical fiction fix and a head start on an excellent upcoming series.’ The AU Review

‘An entertaining tale with entertaining characters and many plot twists.’ Historical Novels Review

'It isn’t easy to put the book down until the murderer is exposed' Bella Online

BOOKS BY M.J. TJIA
She Be Damned
A Necessary Murder
The Death of Me

• ISBN10: 178507931X
• ISBN13: 9781785079313
• Publish Date: 1 August 2017
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Legend Press Ltd
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[annieb123]

This book amazed me. I was checking my notes in preparation for writing this review and they're useless. They're full of "wow" and "amazing" and "that was very clever".

This book is just that.

The first thing that struck me is that, unusually for fiction, it's written in the first person. That's tough. Generally what happens is that after the 457th 'I did a thing, then I did another thing', the reader wants to gouge their eyes out with a rusty spoon. That is emphatically not the case with this book. The writing is masterful. The plotting and story progression are organic and seamless. The things that happened felt natural and not contrived. I just really REALLY enjoyed reading this book.

I read a ton and a half of mysteries. I consider myself pretty good at 'whodunnit'. I had -no- clue with this one. I was SO far off base and all I can say is "Well played, Ms. Tjia, well played"! There were plot twists and payoffs up until literally the last paragraphs.

The historical London and environs are perfectly drawn. The environments are well described (smells, sights, good and bad all together) along with historically accurate representations of sexual mores and attitudes in different strata of society.

A caveat, however. The narrative is quite gritty and graphic in places. There's a fair bit of sex (not in a nice way) and murder and historically awful stuff included. If you're looking for a nice tea shop cozy mystery, this is not it.

I'm going to put this author (M.J. Tjia) on my perma-update list on Amazon/Goodreads.

Five huge stars with glitter on top.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.