One more

Gail Carrigan: Soulless

One more book based on Amazon's "people who bought this also bought" recommendations. The setting is urban fantasy with werewolves, ghosts and vampires set into Victorian London, with a bit of helping of steampunk. The main character is a spunky old (over twenty!) spinster, keeping with the strong female protagonist theme. Presumably the book is more paranormal romance than mystery, really, but most importantly it is quite different from anything else I've read in the genre -- and to not only be new and original but also well done is really quite remarkable.
The prose is fairly fancy, and the descriptions of the settings, and dishes, and attire are likewise, causing me to resort to the dictionary every so often. At times it seems like the author is doing this tongue firmly in cheek, especially when the alliteration abounds, but after a bit of apprehension I decided I rather liked it. While hardly an authentic account, the characters are still much more beholden to the kinds of social norms that Victorian aristocracy might have been subjected to than other works set into this era -- consequently, while clearly not to be taken seriously, the end result is a more authentic period piece than most other attempts by fantasy authors that seem to just set modern characters in old costumes.
The book is not perfect, and I'm curious to see if Ms. Carrigan is imaginative enough to continue to keep the characters interesting and fresh in future books, but I'm still giving this all five stars, just because it's well done and delightfully different.