I had the pleasure of first reading this book as an early draft, and it’s been a privilege to follow its development over the years.

In this murder mystery in a weird/steampunk setting, we follow devout blacksmith Nette and irreverent charlatan Mary as they try to achieve their conflicting goals. While Nette strives to bring her parents’ killer to justice, Mary just aims to turn a profit and rid herself of some old familial debts.

The world feels very “frontier”, with dollops of magic and infrequent godly intervention (or maybe that should be interference). However, magic isn’t used casually, and so the characters have to be devious rather than handwaving their escapes after they get themselves (and each other) into trouble.

As you might imagine, Nette and Mary have distinct personalities, and they’re haunted by different issues. It was greatly satisfying to see how their disparate stories came together as the story progressed.

Highly recommended.