Buffalo Police Sergeant Brendan Fagan, investigating a series of grisly murders spurred by clashes between humans and automatons, only wants to save his city. The last thing he needs in his life is a rule-bending, steam-cannon-toting, unpredictable female like Ginny Landry, a woman who could possibly bring down his career and the one woman he quite likely can’t resist.Ginny means to settle the … estate of her mother, an infamous madam, quickly and get out of town. She has no intention of becoming involved with any part of her inheritance or falling for Brendan. In fact, she makes it a point never to date handsome men. But when her rash behavior brings them together, the attraction can’t be denied.And when the city erupts in chaos, forcing her to choose a moral side, can she deny what’s in her heart?
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Buffalo Police Sergeant Brendan Fagan, investigating a series of grisly murders spurred by clashes between humans and automatons, only wants to save his city. The last thing he needs in his life is a rule-bending, steam-cannon-toting, unpredictable female like Ginny Landry, a woman who could possible bring down his career and the one woman he quite likely can’t resist.
Ginny means to settle the estate of her mother, an infamous madam, quickly and get out of town. She has no intention of becoming involved with any part of her inheritance or falling from Brendan. In fact, she makes it a point never to date handsome men. But when her rash behavior brings them together the attraction can’t be denied..
And when the city erupts in chaos, forcing her to choose a moral side, can she deny what’s in her heart?
For me the story began with Brendan Fagan’s voice which took me back to the front parlor in my grandparents’ home in the Tipperary Hill section of Syracuse, New York . The warm, wonderful memories brought a smile to my face. Immediately hooked, I then had to tear myself away when other duties, too pressing to ignore, called.
Ordinarily not a fan of the Steampunk genre when “. . . sweet leaping Jesus, dancing on a tree stump . . .” jumped off the page, I fell in love.
I gotta read the rest of this series.
Kat Henry Doran, Wild Women Reviews
Last Orders is a solid 5+. If you read it just for the steamy romance and the action, you will go away highly satisfied. If you look more deeply, you may recognize real world issues peeking from the pages of this superbly written potboiler.
Ginny Landry is a reluctant visitor to turn of the century, steampunk Buffalo, New York. Only her estranged mother’s bizarre murder could have gotten her to leave her beloved frontier and Ginny intends to settle up the estate and get home as quickly as she can. Trouble is her mother ‘s death is only a portent of worse things to come.
In Laura Strickland’s reimagined steampunk Buffalo, Buffalo is home to not only human inhabitants but also steam-powered automatons—the steamies. Some are hybrids—part human and part steamie. They remind me a great deal of Isaac Asimov’s positronic robots in I, Robot. The author’s world building skills are right up there with Asimov and I was soon immersed as the characters deal with ethical and moral issues threatening to erupt into violence all across the city.
The steamies want their freedom. It’s as simple as that. Ginny, new to the debate, sees the situation only as an obstacle. She just wants out of this crazy city, despite her interest in Brendan Fagan, the handsome police sergeant investigating her mother’s murder. He’s got problems of his own and Ginny turns out to be one more—but Ginny is a problem he may not want to solve.
Last Orders does what all good science fiction/fantasy should do—it leaves you pondering greater issues than those in the story. What is life, after all? Who can say where a soul comes from? If a society metes out rights and privileges to one part of the populace yet allows another segment to be marginalized and abused, can that society call itself civilized? Won’t there be hell to pay for atrocities committed in the name of religion?
Besides being a rousingly good story, Last Orders, shines a light on prejudice and discrimination. To survive, the people of Buffalo will need to change their perceptions, leave old traditions behind, and look at the world from a different angle. It takes strength to admit you have been wrong. That’s a message we can all take to heart.