Review: The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter

The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter by Theodora Goss
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What if there was fanfiction of all the best books from the 1800s and it was all about women who are friends and solve crimes and are also monsters? And what if the characters periodically interrupted the story to comment on it?

The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter, that's what. And it's awesome.

Dr. Jekyll's daughter has had to lay off most of her household staff and is in desperate need of money. So she decides to investigate a decade-old crime to get the reward money for catching the murderer.
But it isn't so simple as that, as she discovers her deceased(?) father and his alter ego Hyde are involved, which leads her and Holmes and Watson to investigate more recent murders.
Along the way she meets a sister she didn't know she had, a poisonous lady, a puma woman, and Frankenstein's female monster (the one Mary Shelley's non-fiction book about Frankenstein said he'd never built), and they discover a secret society that created them.

I'm sure there are literary references I'm missing. Of the works mentioned, I've only read Moreau, but a passing knowledge of the other stories is enough to enjoy this book.
And it's just so sweet and lovely and if I'd read this when I was twelve the characters all would have become my imaginary friends.


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