Nicola Claire’s captivating new Gothic romance series introduces a dark and sinister early settler New Zealand at the end of the nineteenth century – brightened by a fearless and talented heroine and a loyal and secretive police inspector…
Free spirit. Brilliant. A Liability?
Doctor Anna Cassidy has been trained by the best; the former Chief Surgeon for the Auckland Police Force. She knows … Force. She knows how to dissect a body. She knows how to treat any ailment. And she knows how to find a cause of death.
But society is not ready for a female surgeon.
Fighting for what she believes in has been ingrained in Anna since she was a young child. But the battles she faces now are not all based on equality. A murderer stalks her fellow Suffragettes and the police inspector in charge of the case could be Anna’s downfall.
Experienced. Dedicated. Something to hide?
Inspector Andrew Kelly holds duty and honour in the highest regard. His role as a detective proves just that; he never stops until justice is served. Love is something he has forsaken, for reasons he’d rather you didn’t know.
But Anna is not a woman a man can ignore.
Fighting his instincts with cold determination is something Kelly has become accustomed to. But a murderer is loose in his adopted city, bringing memories to the fore of a killer who walked in the shadows of Whitechapel, and shining light on a dark past the Inspector is trying hard to forget.
A gritty, twisted, and authentic Victorian romantic suspense, sure to rip you apart… just like old Jack.
more
The moment you start to read, you are drawn into the intrigue and suspense, and attraction between Anna and Kelly. Highly recommend you try to figure out who has been murdering suffragettes.
A thrilling historic murder mystery! Anna was trained in forensic pathology by her late father and fought for women’s suffrage and acceptance as a doctor in Victorian Aukland. Inspector Andrew Kelly is trying to solve Ripper-style murders of suffragettes and reluctantly accepts Anna’s medical insights into the murders even while being adamantly protective of her. The ending is surprising and the romance is barely there but I enjoyed the book and would like to read more in the series to see if this couple has a chance at a future. Another great Nicola Claire romance!
I enjoyed the novelty of a historical romance featuring a plucky female protagonist who wasn’t obsessed with the need to land a husband.
The heroine in this book is wonderfull. You don’t expect such a strong woman in that time era. Great read.
Anna, at age 26, calls herself a surgeon since she was trained by her physician father. Anna is dedicated to causes, a suffragette in this book. Her father had been a police surgeon, and Anna feels that if women could gain equality she could also work as a police surgeon. She has been working with/bothering a police inspector who has a love-hate relationship with Anna. Three suffragettes are brutally murdered, and Anna gets very involved in searching for the killer. The entire novel is fraught with angst as Anna and the inspector try to clarify their relationship. And after about half that angst became tiring and I enjoyed the book less and less.
Fearless begins in a time when woman didn’t have the right to vote yet. That’s where our heroine, Anna, comes in. She’s a fearless woman who will stop at nothing to get her degree and become a surgeon just like her father was before he died. She’s seen things no woman should have to see in life, and still gets pushed around because she is a woman. Even the man she’s in love with, Inspector Kelly, doesn’t really seem to want her. But when woman start being murdered Kelly’s going to need Anna’s help to figure out who is killing them before she’s next.
This book has a really good story line. I loved the time it was in, and what hardships Anna had to face. That was truly amazing to read about. I loved that. And I really loved Anna just as a character as well. She was truly “Fearless.”
What I didn’t love was Inspector Kelly. I tried my hardest to like him, but I hated the way he treated Anna throughout the book. And I truly didn’t like the information we learn about him in the end. That just made me very frustrated with what will happen in the next book between them. Because I can only see two choices that will happen, and one of them will make me think less of Anna if she takes it. I will just have to cross my fingers and just hope she doesn’t do that.
But other than that this was a truly unique historical romance, with a huge mystery in it. It sort of made me feel like I was reading a female Sherlock Holmes type of story, and I truly adored it!
I really wanted to like this book. I liked the plot and the characters but it moved really slow. There was a lot of the characters story that were inferred about but there was never a reveal. A lot of “looking at their feeling” instead of getting on with the story.
Interesting period of time for women
A little too grisly, but I didn’t want to put it down.
Wow! Engrossing story with incredible twists this reader did not expect. This is not your typical historical romance. The setting – late 19th century Aukland – is something new, at least for me. Many topics of the time period are included – women’s suffrage, political corruption, opium abuse, and the frustration of a young woman, who is treated as a child, her medical capabilites not being acknowledged.
More!
The only thing I didn’t like about this book was finding out that she had written the next one yet …. 🙂
I really wanted to like this book but just couldn’t! I didn’t even finish it.
Interesting to see a woman get respected in a field and era that restricted their activities greatly. Surprising turns of action.