Actual rating: 3.5

I don’t usually read mystery or thrillers. This is the one that I read after a long time. This is a debut novel of the author M.J. Tjia. She Be Damned is a historical mystery set in the Victorian era in London. The main protagonist of the story is Mrs. Heloise Chancey who is a courtesan and lives in Mayfair with her Chinese Maid Amah Li Leen.

She got an assignment by Mr. Thomas Avery to find a missing girl named Eleanor, who was from a good family and was missing in London’s dark side, Waterloo. On the other hand, pregnant prostitutes in Waterloo area were being murdered and their sexual organs being mutilated and removed. They get the news of another girl getting murdered and they suspect that it may be Eleanor. Heloise decided to live in Waterloo, where her roots were, for investigating the case further.

During the investigation, Heloise made contacts to try and find Eleanor. But during all this mystery solving she gets into a bigger mystery and the number of events that were happening with the prostitutes. She meets a police sergeant, Bill Chapman who helps her in with the case. Obviously, there is some romance between them. They have a number of suspects for the crime and together they made some progress. She was near to getting the truth when Amah got arrested for the charge of murders.

Will Heloise be able to prove that Amah is innocent? Has does Amah anything to do with all this? What happened to Eleanor? Will Heloise find her? Who is the real killer and what actually is the motive?

All the characters were created beautifully according to the Victorian era of the 1860s. The dressing of Heloise was explained in a detailed manner like how the ladies were supposed to dress in those days. The author does a great job with the London setting and shown the attitudes and morals of the time correctly, as far I can say.

I found that the book is more character driven rather than the mystery driven. All the characters were dynamic and properly described as per their roles. I really liked the relationship between Amah Li Leen and Heloise. They were the perfect pairing while they don’t often get along.

Though the character of Heloise was represented to a big extent, nothing was revealed about her past. I wanted to know her back story, that how she gets to leave the life of the prostitute and got settled in Mayfair. But I guess, the author has saved that backstory to be described in next books of the series (yes, this is to become a series.). Also, bits and pieces about Amah Li Leen were shown, but I wanted to know more about her story, that how she ended up with Heloise. Middle English is used as the language.

At some point it was dark especially the way those prostitutes were being murdered. Those were awful. But I am glad, that there was not too much graphic description for those deaths. Sometimes, you feel as if the story has just skipped some parts and it becomes confusing during parts of the book. There was romance in the story but nothing too graphic.

In spite of having some complaints about the story, I loved the ending. It was surprising and I absolutely didn’t saw it coming.

If you are looking for some quick and assertive read, then this is a decent read. It is certainly worth the read, especially for the ending. That ending specially changed my whole outlook towards the story. As a debut novel, Tjia has done a great job. I will definitely wait for the next book in the series, as I want to know more about Heloise and Amah’s backstory.


*** Thank you NetGalley and Pantera Press fro providing me and eARC in exchange of an honest review.

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