At times I wondered why Mikani and Ritsuko simply didn’t use a mobile phone to call for backup – only to remind myself that there’s no such thing. There’s rarely any description of the style of technology that would define the genre but we do have tube stations for travel and never-described “mirror stations” for communication.

The steampunk elements are actually quite low key. People are put at risk because of society’s rules and expectations. Ritsuko has to battle against the prejudices in the force. I enjoyed the Victoriana in Bronze Gods most of all. As murder mysteries go Bronze Gods is complex – not because the plot is complex or trying to guess the killer is complex but because anything is possible in a world with real magic. Events unfold in a way that Mikani and Ritsuko are powerless to stop. It’s the escalation of the drama and danger that fuels Bronze Gods. This is a killer with access to strange blood magic and intent on completing a powerful ritual. The missing girl is from a powerful family and soon the Criminal Investigation Division has every reason to believe a twisted killer is stalking the streets. The investigation takes several turns for the worse. His partner is the first ever female inspector Celeste Ritsuko and quite a contrast with her attention to detail and logical crime solving. Inspector Janus Mikani is one of those with fairy in his blood and is perfectly at home in starting a bar brawl in order to win some information for his case. The action picks up with a missing girl and the efforts of Criminal Investigation Division to find her. As science continues at a pace it almost feels as if some elements of the past are becoming taboo even though there are no questions on the power or prestige of certain powerful families. The fact that some people have low levels of power or even magic seems to be accepted but rarely spoken about. The setting of Bronze Gods is a steampunky metropolis ringed by infrequently visited countryside. After the war a peace was formed through the mingling of bloodlines. Then, from over the seas, bearded men with their iron weapons came. There was an island in which pure blooded fae dwelled Summer and Winter courts. That’s a nice way to do it, the background builds as the plot unfolds and readers like myself who get hungry for mythos are rewarded with each new development. The exact mythology and lore isn’t spelt out in painstaking detail, it is hinted at through dreams and research.

It’s an interesting set up that mixes a fairy/fantasy setting with steampunk. Bronze Gods is an Apparatus Infernum novel, the first I think, from the partnership of Ann Aguirre and husband Andres Aguirre (writing as A.A.

Bronze Gods by A.A. Aguirre