“I’m not killing them!” Dinosaurs were a rarity, confined by the Great Wall to this single peninsula, no larger than France on Earth. She couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to reduce their numbers any further.
“I know. But don’t you want a better look? We only caught a glimpse of that one by the stream. How many people can say they’ve seen a dinosaur close up?” [p. 49]
Steampunk-flavoured novella set on Mars in 1815. Napoleon won at Trafalgar, but the British Empire is steadfastly holding onto its Martian territories, its stiff upper lip, and its aristocratic traditions. Harriet George does not wish to fall prey to these, especially the one about being married off advantageously to save her family's fortunes: therefore, she must ensure that her hapless brother-in-law's latest police investigation, into the mysterious jewel thief known as the Glass Phantom, is a success.
But Bertrand is so very hapless...
Luckily Harriet -- or 'Harry', since she is of course masquerading as a boy -- is resourceful, brave, quick-thinking and perceptive. She and Bertrand join a party of dinosaur hunters (slaughtering innocent animals being another great aristocratic tradition) after a tip-off concerning the Countess von Krakendorff's famous ruby necklace. Any of the hunters could be the villainous Phantom. But meanwhile: dinosaurs!
I have to admit it was the promise of dinosaurs that lured me in, and they did not disappoint. But I also discovered a charming heroine, an intriguing steampunk setting, and a proper old-fashioned Mars. (And a pompous git pontificating on the 'savage' extinct Martians, and whether the fossils found on Earth bear any relation to the living Triceratops, etc, that he is hunting.) Great fun and very readable.
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