Book 2 in this series is just as enthralling as Book 1. The over arcing "Jack the Ripper" mystery is woven into the current action and gives this series so much depth and intrigue.

Fiona finds herself in more danger than she bargained for and finally decides that "crazy" Aunt Nola might now be as crazy as she thinks. This cast of characters is outstanding.

With just a hint of romance, betrayal, more murder and so much more mystery, I don't think I've read a more engrossing tale in quite some time. I can't get enough...

4 stars

I'm borderline obsessed with everything Byrne and this series is no exception. i adore the characters, the storyline is so engrossing and as always the writing is top tier. I can not wait for the remaining books in the series.

The premise of the story sounded interesting. However, the story was very dull and repetitive. I did not really care for the characters, especially Fiona. It felt more like the Bachelorette than a historical mystery. Most of the story focuses on men pursuing our heroine. The mystery itself is very predictable. Overall, I recommend this for fans those that love historical romances.

Not my favorite genre, but Kerrigan Byrne always writes a deep complicated story. However, reading the first in this series is a must.

A suspense novel with romantic elements.

Really enjoyed this new installment in the Fiona Mahoney mysteries. She's a fun heroine, very clever and resourceful but also imperfect. Her romantic entanglements were intriguing (though she is certainly another case of the heroine who is irresistible to every single man she meets). I enjoyed The Business of Blood but enjoyed this one more since it wasn't quite as bloody and disgusting. :) I am endlessly grossed out by all the descriptions of murder and viscera and autopsies, but there wasn't quite as much of it in this book since Fiona is involved in a number of other activities besides just crime scene cleanup. The plot was fast-paced and interesting (though dark, as to be expected) and I cannot wait until the next installment (especially b/c of that cliffhanger of an ending!!).

I really liked this book. Set in the Victorian times, I liked that the main character was a strong woman who didn’t cow down to the men around her. It might be a little gruesome for some, but I loved it. I’d highly recommend to others, and am looking forward to the next in the series.

I love the intrigue and the suspense. The heroine is a strong character who I hope finds the answers she seeks. But dang, I wish there was a wee bit more romance. 😂

I will always read Kerrigan’s books. She has a way of grabbing me from the very beginning and keeping me engaged til the end. With the way this ended, I’m feeling a lot of feels and I’m not sure how to deal with it.

So here I wait…

I love how so many things happened in the book. I could not keep myself from the book because it was so good

I was really looking forward to this one with the long wait and for some reason I just didn’t find this one as good as the first.

I love Fiona but this book seemed to be mostly focused on who was going to be her love interest and taking her virginity. Which is fine as a small point but I feel like it’s really dragged along in the story. By now in this series I’d have liked a solid love interest.

I do still like the mystery aspect and will keep reading the next book when it’s out.

Very unusual and interesting historical mystery. Featuring Fiona Mahoney who cleans up murder scenes. Good characters and interactions with all sorts. A good read.

Fiona Mahoney is a post mortem sanitation specialist. Meaning, she cleans up the sites of deaths as requested by police, but mostly after the murders of an assassin working for a local crime boss. She also has a weird relationship with Jack the Ripper, as in, he became interested in her after she cleaned up after Mary Kelly was found butchered by the Ripper. Mary was Fiona’s friend.

Fiona also is an acquaintance of a detective, and she becomes involved in investigating two murders of high end prostitutes when the detective’s elder sister Amelia asks her for help. Amelia used to be a prostitute, and knows the madam of the affected brothel, so it’s not too difficult for Fiona to infiltrate the place and investigate the murdered women’s coworkers.

I liked the start of his book, and liked Fiona, who is smart, determined, and has an unconventional profession and unconventional ideas about things (like how misogynistic just about every man she encounters in this book, except for the assassin and his boss the crime lord.) I also liked how the author depicted a Victorian London as more realistically diverse than it typically is in historical mysteries.

But, I really could not stand the detective, and also found it implausible that he, the assassin and crime lord would all be trying to sleep with Fiona. Also, her connection to the Ripper felt a bit forced to me (I should mention I’ve not read the earlier book(s) in this series) and maybe that was fleshed out more convincingly there.

So, this was a relatively quick read, and though I liked Fiona, I was lukewarm to the idea of exploring further books in this series.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Oliver Heber Books for this ARC in exchange for my review.

I loved this book so much! The plot,the characters. It drew me in and I wanted more of Fiona Mahoney.

Someone is eating corpses in the streets of London. Jack the Rippersname is whispered in the streets bringing Fiona back into her past. And her determination for revenge.
I highly recommend this book!!

I really enjoyed the latest installment in the Fiona Mahoney Mysteries! Once again Fiona has gotten herself in the middle of a murder case and it had me mesmerized until the very end. Speaking of the ending...😱. I can't wait for the next installment!!!

Kerrigan has done it again, got me invested and left me wanting MORE! I think I liked this book even more than the first! It took so long between books but my goodness was it worth the wait! Such a great new mystery that I couldn’t quite call until the end! There was quite a bit more delicious sexual tension which I LOVED! Omg I can’t decide which of the three men I want more for Fiona! I really wish we had more “alone time” with all three! I was also a little sad that we didn’t get more time with Oscar but I could see that he wasn’t as needed in this particular book! I can’t wait until the next book! I just hope beyond hope that it actually IS a lover knocking on Fiona’s door….

Haunted by her past losses, hunted by bad boy suitors and stalked by Jack the Ripper, Fiona Mahoney's got a lot of work to do, and it's not just cleaning up dead bodies to make a living!

Holy crap this book is so good I never wanted it to end! It's rare to find an author that puts enough romance into their historical mystery for me, but Kerrigan Byrne is one! In fact, I tend to love all her books whether they are straight historical romance or this darker mystery-driven series. This book especially was SO absorbing.

Fans of Anna Lee Huber's Lady Darby series and Deanna Raybourn's Lady Julia & Veronica Speedwell series will find another favorite in Fiona Mahoney.

Romance readers, there are THREE love interests in this book and I can't decide who I want Fiona to pick! They all have such great chemistry and interactions with her... I can't even pick a TEAM! When has that ever happened?

Mystery readers, you will never guess the twists to these endings and... who is going to turn out to be Jack the Ripper?! I'm sure it's going to break my heart, whoever it is, and I'm HERE. FOR. IT. Byrne doesn't skimp on her plots or her romantic tension, creating an addictive balance.

I'm all in for however long this series goes. Next one out in October! Just in time for my Halloween TBR pile!

I don’t know that I would be feeling so warmly about this book if the next part of the series wasn’t scheduled to be released later this year as it ended with an infuriating teaser. But that is the brilliance of Kerrigan Byrne. She writes characters that you can’t help but invest yourself in. Fiona Mahoney is just her latest.

This is the second book in the series about the young Irish woman who came to England only to find her best friend murdered by Jack the Ripper. Determined to make something of herself while also seeking revenge for her friend’s death, Fiona has developed a business for herself cleaning up crime scenes. The first book in the series, The Business of Blood, provides more details of her work and how she came to be who she is. I highly recommend reading it before this second book in the series as the incidents in the first create a life-altering change for her as she begins the second book that will be hard to understand without the context of the previous story, although the author does her best to retell the key elements of that story.

In this book, Fiona matures as she takes on the case of murdered prostitues clearly not linked to Jack the Ripper. Although she never wanted to be an investigator, she is compelled by a new friend, the sister of Detective Grayson, to look into the matter. Knowing the women will not have a fair investigation as they, like her friend, were considered unimportant due to their profession, she reluctantly agrees to help. As expected, her journey brings her into contact with the key characters from the previous book, including those from the underworld who are pulling her into a life on the wrong side of the law. She wars with her conscience as much as her attraction to the various men in her life and the responsibility she feels to those around her.

A stark departure from the intimate romance novels Ms. Byrnes typically writes, this series nonetheless reveals her trademark skill for delving into the psyche of her characters, bringing out their deepest fears and unruliest thoughts, making them sympathetic and fascinating even when they are at their worst. Once you start reading, you won’t want to put it down.

Before I start i just want to say that I did receive and eARC of this book from netgally but all opinions below are my own.

This was such an amazing book and the perfect sequel! Fiona is such an amazing character I really felt we got to know her a bit more in this book. I definitely feel like there's so much more to learn about her and I look forward to future books and getting to see her grow more. Out of all the characters Fiona interacts with I loved Inspector Croft! Definitely became one of my favorite characters in this book! I did struggle getting through the first couple chapters of this book but once I did I could not put it down. If mystery and suspense are your favorite genres I recommend you pick up this series. I can't wait till book 3 comes out!

Wow, I missed the first in this series but was very happy to read this one. I have been reading a lot of historical murder mysteries but I found this one very different. It is not a cozy mystery by any chance. The victims are very well described and quite gory but very well written. There was no humor but there is a slow-burn romance that has you guessing who our heroine will end up with. There are many twists and turns that keep you reading. I did find it a hard book to read but I still very much enjoyed it. Now I am looking forward to the next one and reading the first. I received this as an ARC from Netgalley and freely give my review.

Let me start by saying I enjoyed this book. Fiona is refreshingly unbothered by vulgarities.
The feminist point of view of these Victorian women and the way the world turned its back on them hit me hard because we still have a ways to go in that regard. Each male character, the Hammer, Croft and Artemis are all characters I’d love to learn more about. The suspense and story telling is enough to keep you turning the page. However the mention of Jack the Ripper and Oscar Wilde felt more like name dropping than anything to do with the story. They served no purpose and the story would have been the exact same without mention of them. The ending/epilogue was too ambiguous for me. There were mentions of Fiona’s past here and there but nothing really explained. I took away one star for the teaser of Jack the Ripper bc nothing ever came of it.

Kerrigan Byrne could probably write out her grocery list and I would love it. Probably.

I've been waiting on this book since I turned the last page of book one in this series and I have to say, I loved this book. Fiona is such a great character! She has turned an awful situation into something that keeps her going day in and day out. Her strength and motivation are what truly keeps the story flowing.

Of course, all the characters that surround her are well developed too and I love the tension between Fiona and Inspector Croft, and the Blade, and the Hammer. :) When Fiona gets pulled into a case to find out who is killing prostitutes from well-known brothel, she puts herself into their shoes and finds out just how dangerous the work is. I loved getting to see Grayson Croft in a different light (younger brother to Amelia) and how he engages with his sister differently from everyone else.

The story itself was well done. The build up of the mystery and the way Byrne is able to paint a picture of the character's surroundings with only words on paper was great and I can't wait to see where this story goes next...especially with the Jack the Ripper teases we had throughout.

If you're looking for a historical with a mystery / suspense edge, definitely pick this series up!