I jumped at the chance to preview a steampunk mystery and R.A. McCandless did not disappoint! McCandless writes an engaging, strong, LGBTQ+ heroine who is fearless, intelligent, and sassy. I look forward to reading more of Aubrey's adventures.
Equal parts mystery and steampunk, this book will satisfy a wide audience of readers. The cast was interesting and well-developed, and the well-paced action made this one difficult to put down.
Thank you to NetGalley and Ellysian Press for providing me with an ARC of this book.

The Clockwork Detective by R. A. McCandless, a great beginning to a new series. Aubrey is an inspector in the Imperium and is on her way home when she gets diverted by her superiors to help solve a murder. Full of intrigue, suspicion and fey, I can't wait to read the next one when it comes out.

In the Clockwork Detective, we see Constable Aubrey temporarily assigned to the town of Aqualinne to help investigate the murder of a young druid that has recently occurred. While there she meets Constable Sterben and the two work together to help solve the case, which takes them into the nearby village of Sankt Andra and later into Fae territory.

Of this novel, I have two minds. During the first 45%, I didn't feel any connection to the story or to the characters. With each new character I held out hope for turning the book around for me. However, it wasn't just the story or the characters that was bothering me. There were specific parts of the story that were incongruous to other parts and felt so out of place that I had no idea where the emotions the characters held were coming from. In one specific example, Constable Aubrey is invited to have dinner with Constable Sterber and his wife. The dinner is going well until a visitor arrives, which Constable Sterber clearly is unhappy about. After dinner, Constable Aubrey thanks her hosts and leaves for her boarding house. However, the next day while riding together she contemplates reaching for her weapon on Sterber. Say what? Where did these emotions come from? I spent a good deal of time reading and re-reading the part to see where my understanding went wrong. Did I skip a sentence? Or paragraph? They had dinner and the next day one small comment about the previous nights visitor and weapons are thought of? Perhaps in some way it makes sense, but there was nothing to indicate within the story that this was even coming. After finishing the book and before writing this review I went again to the sections where the emotions in play didn't match up to the previous section to see if my thoughts had changed, but they had not.

About 45% through I knew I needed a break. So I intentionally took several days off from reading the book so that when I came back to it I wasn't so frustrated. And it helped. Once I picked the book up again I found the remaining portion of the story very nice and easy to read. Starting from when Constables Aubrey and Sterber begin looking for the fae the pace of the story really picks up and became difficult for me to put down. During portions of the latter half of the book there were parts I truly did not see coming.

Throughout the story you also get a sense that there is a bigger world that it is fleshed out, but just not told or explored yet in this particular book, which is a good thing. With each new book in the series, I can see the world expanding more and more - for there are a lot of good things that the author can draw upon.

All in all, I found this book to be a mixed bag for review purposes. The first 45% I would give 2 stars, but the latter half I would give 4. If some of the first portion of the book could be redone a little, I think it would be a solid 4 stars from me.

My recommendation is that if you are interested in steampunk, with a little fantasy mixed in then you may want to consider picking up this novel, but just realize that it may need fleshing out in some sections.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'm a fan of steampunk and I like mystery. This book was perfect as it mixes elements of both genre in a very good way.
The writer was able to write an engaging and entertaining book and to master the best way to mix the different elements.
As this is the first book in a series I look forward to read the next installments.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Steampunk is one of my favourite genres so I am always on the lookout for new books.

The Clockwork Detective is the first in a new series. The main character is Constable Aubrey Hartmann who is a well known war hero too. During her last battle she was seriously injured and she lost one of her legs from the knee down and got a clockwork leg for her troubles. The story starts with Aubrey on her way home on an airship when she is asked for help to solve a murder. The catch is that the murder seems to be Fae related.

I read this book in a relativeley short time because I was curious about the fae. I’ve read lots of books about them and I wanted to find out how they will looke like in this book. I have to tell I’m a lottle disappointed that the only creatured that are featured in the book are centaurs. It’s not everyday you get to read about them so I really really loved them.
And I liked Aubrey too. She is a strong female protagonist who is even more interesting since she has a small impediment - her leg - but she ovescomes that with her sharp wit and perceptiveness.

The story is set in a imaginary world but since the story takes place mostly in a little village there is not much world building. I suspect there will be more books in the future, it would be great to have at least a map of this world.

Thank you to NetGalley, Ellysian Press and R.A. McCandless for my copy. All opinions are my own.

I enjoy a young female protagonist, and even though this particular young female protagonist might as well be a man for most purposes, she's determined, competent, perceptive, and an excellent negotiator who thinks well in a dangerous situation - things we're shown rather than told, to the author's credit.

There's a mystery plot, which played out well, but also an underlying political plot which is part of a larger series arc. There are tense confrontations and powerful moments of action and magic.

The setting is steampunk, but with a strong magical component from the Fae; there's the usual lighter-than-hydrogen gas for the airships, clockwork where clockwork doesn't necessarily make a lot of sense (in a prosthetic leg), and the rest of the steampunk trappings that you just have to take a deep breath and swallow.

The protagonist serves a somewhat corrupt and potentially dystopian empire, something that I hope will lead to more conflicts later in the series.

I read a pre-release copy from Netgalley, which needed an awful lot of copy editing work, even more than average for steampunk (which is typically a lot); I hope it gets it, though inevitably even a really good copy editor will still miss things. For an author who boasts of two decades of experience and a degree in communication and creative writing, the punctuation, grammar, and vocabulary errors are extraordinarily numerous.

Leaving that aside, I enjoyed it as a story, and would consider reading another in the series, though I'd probably want to read it after it had been thoroughly edited rather than before.

Constable Aubrey Hartmann is a war hero with a reputation, she also has a clockwork leg. Aubrey is ordered to help a local policeman to investigate the murder of a young Druwyd in a strange town. But Aubrey has some powerful enemies who are out to stop her. I was really looking forward to reading this book but unfortunately it wasn't for me.. Sorry.

The Clockwork Detective is a steampunk fantasy mystery involving flying airships, an ornery but dedicated constable with a ⏰ Clockwork leg, palace intrigue, centaurs, and magic. The constable is a strong female character who a whole series might be built around. The centaurs are a most intriguing group, unyielding, terrifying, battle-hardened. As a reader, you feel that you barely got a glimpse into this fascinating world of far off kingdoms and fae creatures. The cover doesn’t really hint at the fantasy side of this terrific novel, well-written, and absorbing.

Many thanks to the publisher for providing a copy for review.