The French had it within their power to create an army that could never be stopped. Soldiers who would keep on fighting even when dismembered. Yet they had used that power to contaminate face powder instead. No wonder they’d lost the war. [p. 214]
Another first-in-series, this one offered free on Kindle UK. I confess I am intrigued by the setup: a Regency where various ladies (and a few gentlemen) of the Ton have become zombies -- I beg your pardon, 'Afflicted' -- as a result of using contaminated face-powder, a dastardly ploy of Napoleon's mages.
Our heroine is Hannah Miles, who lives quietly with her parents (her mother is Afflicted, but still very much part of the family) and helps her father in his scientific experiments. When a gruesome murder occurs at her best friend's engagement party, Hannah's mother insists that Hannah investigates the case, though she must accompany the brooding Viscount Wycliff rather than conducting her own enquiries. Wycliff is unpardonably rude to the Afflicted whom he interviews; Hannah apologises a lot, but her understandable annoyance is tempered with growing respect for Wycliff's intelligence and dignity. And Wycliff has never met anyone quite like Hannah ...
A whole industry has grown up around the Afflicted, supplying them with 'pickled cauliflower' (a nice euphemism for sliced, preserved human brains) as well as veils, porcelain masks, pomanders, et cetera. (Hannah reflects that if the working classes had been affected, the Army would simply have been sent in to deal with the problem.) There are also poignant legal issues: if a man has vowed marriage 'til death do us part', surely he can cast aside an Afflicted wife and marry again? And, in the wider world, this is just one attack in an ongoing magical war.
Some of the information was repeated more often than was really necessary, and there were a few jolts of clunky writing -- I don't think Wycliff would use the word 'posh' even to himself (for one thing it's an anachronism); one places bets on fighters, not coin ... Overall, though, an entertaining and engaging read, and just the beginning of a slow-burn romance. I will likely read more in the series.
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