I found this to be an incredibly arresting mystery and an interesting look into the past. Heloise is a courtesan, a kept woman and it seems part time investigator. When a daughter of a peer become pregnant outside of marriage she disappears to steamy underbelly of London where her father cannot find her. Heloise is entrusted to help locate the missing young woman and see her returned home to her family. There is also a killer on the loose mutilating prostitutes, throughout London. Heloise due to her nature can navigate both the upper and lower parts of London to see to her duty. With this killer on the loose, Heloise on his radar and women throughout London being killed the challenge may be Heloise staying alive at all.

‘Go back to work in a brothel, for the sake of a little detection?’

This novel is set in London in 1863, where prostitutes in the Waterloo area are turning dead. When the corpses are found, organs have been removed or mutilated. Who is killing these women, and why?

Heloise Chancey is a courtesan, nicely set up in a house in Mayfair with her Chinese maid /Amah, Li Leen. Heloise has done some informal detective work for Sir Thomas Avery’s private detective agency previously, and when Eleanor Carter, a well-bred young woman goes missing in the Waterloo area, Heloise is approached by Sir Thomas and, on behalf of an unnamed client, a Mr Priestly to help. And, when simply asking doesn’t seem to get the answer Mr Priestly requires, an unsubtle threat does. The police, apparently, are not particularly interested in the cases of four murdered prostitutes. Sir Thomas and Mr Priestly believe that Heloise Chancey’s contacts may well enable her to locate Eleanor Carter. And so, Heloise Chancey is essentially blackmailed into trying to find Eleanor. Clearly a resourceful young woman, she quickly moves into an investigatory mode. Her mission to try to find Heloise becomes caught up in the police’s wider investigation of the murdered prostitutes.

There are more than a few twists and turns in this story, despite the similarities between this fiction and the crimes perpetrated by Jack the Ripper some twenty-five years later. While I found Heloise Chancey an improbable character, Li Leen was intriguing and Ms Tjia kept my interest throughout. I understand that this is the first novel in an intended series.

I was jerked out of the story at one stage: a reference to the stench of ‘sewerage’ in a novel set in London and written by an Australian should surely be a reference to ‘sewage’.

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Pantera Press for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

If you like historical mysteries set in 1860's Victorian London, this book is in your wheelhouse! We meet Heloise Chancey, a courtesan nicely set up in a Mayfair house with her Chinese maid Amah Li Leen and a small staff. On the side, she does some detective work for the police informally and is asked to find Eleanor, a young woman with a good family who is missing in London's dark side of prostitution.

Heloise returns to her roots (we get some brief flashbacks of a very hardscrabble life in Liverpool and her working her way up from the brothels of Waterloo to her current situation) and makes contacts to try and find Eleanor. But her investigation gets into the middle of a larger mystery - young prostitutes have been found murdered, in a manner similar to what Jack the Ripper will do about 20 years later.

Along the way Heloise informally works with Bill Chapman, a police sergeant, and there is a bit of a romance, although nothing very graphic. We don't get graphic details about the deaths either, although the murders themselves are pretty awful. I found the casual acceptance of violence against women (domestic abuse, some references to rape, women having absolutely no control over their bodies or fortunes) more horrifying. There were doctors at the time who felt removing a woman's ovaries and womb would "calm them down" and make them more content with their lives.

The mystery is compelling and kept my interest throughout. The author does a great job with the London setting and the attitudes and morals of the time. We learn bits and pieces about Heloise and Amah Li Leen's history and I would definitely read the next book in this series!

This is the first in the series of what I hope will be many Heloise Chancey books.
This one tells the story of the hunt for a murderer who is performing operations on prostitutes and leaving them for dead. Heloise is asked to look for a girl to make sure she doesn't end up as one of the murderers victims.
The writing in this book is beautiful and really took me back to 1863. The description is amazing and I loved the style of writing
Throughout the course of the book we find out things about Heloise herself which I hope will carry on the more books there are.
This is only a short book which is usually what happens with these sorts of novels, but the story was wrapped up well. I do usually like my books a lot longer but this one was done well so not a massive issue.

Thankyou to Netgalley for giving me this copy in return for an honest review.

Even though the story is not original, the character certainly is. Heloise Chancey is a girl with a past, but managed to luck out and have a good life. She does favors for a private investigator, who has sometimes given her an opportunity to hone her skills.
In She Be Damned, Heloise was supposed to find a missing girl, but she quickly found herself investigating a murder. Girls have been turning up dead, sans some internal organs. The police wasn't paying attention until now. when the media gets wind of it.
I would read it for Heloise.

Thanks Pantera Press and netgalley for this ARC.

I loved, loved, loved this book. It's of that kind where you just know you'll love it from the first chapter. Honest, loyal, mysterious, and unforgivably herself. Can't wait for the next one!

Mrs. Heloise Chancey has been hired by Sir Thomas to find a young, pregnant girl who has disappeared. A murderer is on the loose, killing young women, dismembering them and leaving them to bleed to death. The girl must be found quickly... It's London in the 1800's and Heloise, a courtesan, actress and part-time detective, must go back to her roots as a prostitute in order to sniff out clues. She moves to a house, owned by a bordello madam, in Waterloo where the murders occurred, leaving her 'servant', Amah, behind. The 2 have an amusing, contentious relationship, but it's obvious they are particularly fond of each other.
The atmospheric writing is tremendous; you smell, feel and hear the crowds, to the point you imagine yourself lifting your feet and skirts so as not to soil them with muck. I loved this book, and the ending is great; I was so sad it was over. Please write quickly, M.J. Tjia, I want to immerse myself into Heloise's world again!
Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read this excellent book.

Heloise Chancey is a woman from Victorian London who is cajoled into working for a detective, Sir Thomas, when prostitutes in Waterloo are showing up dead and butchered. Based on her past she is asked to look around for a man's daughter, Eleanor, that went missing. She becomes a Private Investigator, a job not fit for a woman at the time, and tries to solve the mystery. It is noted that she has done work for the detective in the past as well.

I am so pleased that I was able to pick this book up. I devoured this book in the course of a day. I couldn't help wondering what was going to happen next and wishing that I could be transported back to the time period. Minus the murder, of course. The book was completely immersive, including the dialogue and slang from some of the characters. I'm hoping that there will be more books coming from M.J. Tjia because I would love to read more about Heloise's life.

Loved the slang but the blurb set my hopes for a mystery novel. However this series seems to be going more towards a novel of manner.
Life and troubles of courtesans might be of interest for a lot of people. It most likely won't make me read further in the series.

Heloise Chancey is asked to investigate the girls being butchered when going to have their regeneracy aborted. They are bleeding to death. This is 1863 London and no one seems to care about this happening. Heloise is looking for one particular young lady from a better home who is out on the street. A compelling story of the times and the life of these young ladies. With the help of her Chinese maid, she is finding out more as she investigates.