An Awesome victoriana/steampunk-esque novel!   slightly awkward first few pages, but quickly picks up the pace.   An Epic roller-coaster of a novel that becomes surprisingly...err... explicit. 

Packed full of Chases, Fights, perversity and mystery with some awesome pulpy characters and set in a parallel 19th Century England. 

My only real criticism is Dahlquist's dense writing style.  This is a *big* book, though the action takes place over little more than three days.  He has a habit of reiterating aspects of the characters of which the reader is already aware in a drawn-out, over analytical manner.  His description of places is often minutely detailed without being especially rich.  All this adds to quite a great deal of confusion.  Don't get me wrong, I like slow, thoughtful novels as well, however the story is essentially a fast-paced pulp-thriller so it is a bizarre, not always welcome, juxtaposition.

However, he does an excellent job when the action does happen.  In the end, you spend so much time on the edge of your seat routing for the heroes and cursing the villains, that it is easy for me to dismiss the odd pacing.