I think we all need a series that we fan out just a little bit on (or in my case a lot bit) and for me, Stoker's Wilde is one of those series. It has such an awesome cast of characters from The Stokers to Teddy Roosevelt saving the world from the forces of supernatural evil. And really can you think of any historical figures better than Bram Stoker, Oscar Wilde, and Teddy Roosevelt to stop the forces of evil and then men (and women) trying to control them? I don't think so.
Dr. Victor Mueller is one of the members of the Order of the Golden Dawn that was not rounded up by the White Worm Society when the Black Bishop was taken down, in fact, he's been continuing his experiments in bringing people back from the dead quietly in Finland and he's succeeded! However, he needs Bram Stoker's special blood to continue his work and arranges to get Bram under his control by any means necessary. Meanwhile, in London, a young woman by the name of Lorna Bow is reunited with her mother who had abandoned Lorna for all intents and purposes at a young age. Now though Endora is back and she informs Lorna that she is not just a witch but a witch with the power to call people back from the dead. With the rise of the Spiritualist movement in London Dr. Mueller and Endora will join forces to create an army of the dead with the Black Bishop as its General. The Stokers and the Wildes must now face old foes in superhuman bodies and new foes hell-bent on playing god and with the White Worm Society in disarray, they have no hope for backup this time, they'll have to figure this out on their own and there isn't a moment to spare.
I love this series! This time in history is so interesting because we really do see this mixture of science and the supernatural as is portrayed in the book. People may not have been trying to bring humans back to life but they were trying to create machines to communicate with the dead and all sorts of other things to "thin the veil". And it's because humanity had all of these new technologies at their fingertips like electricity that we are able to get this weird meshing of sci-fi and supernatural during this time frame. It was just the perfect time and the perfect place and Hopstaken and Prusi capture that feeling perfectly in this series!
I loved that Dr. Victor Mueller is a nod to Victor Frankenstein, I don't believe you can write a series like this without giving Shelley her due and I enjoyed Mueller's character immensely because he isn't focused on very often in the book. We get just enough input from him to know he's not playing with a full deck of cards and then he just becomes the bad guy that has to be taken down. And the manner in which this Victor is able to bring people back from the dead is so interesting!! It's really a no-brainer when you think about it (I'm not spoiling it) and it makes perfect sense that this would be a way to bring people back but up until this book I'd never thought of it!
I wrote this review without going into the background of the first two books, while I don't believe it's entirely necessary to read the first two books, I would recommend it as there are conflicts within the relationships with the characters that wouldn't make sense without that background, especially Florence and Ellen's relationship troubles.
Overall, this was a solid entry into one of my favorite series and I look forward to the fourth book and I'm hoping Lorna doesn't go sideways. I liked her character!!
And as always thanks to Netgalley and Flametree Press the eArc of this book!
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