For this coronation month I’m recommending Miss Sharp’s Monsters, a trilogy by Australian author Suzannah Rowntree which has an unusual take on Europe’s royal families. The series begins with The Werewolf of Whitechapel, continues with Anarchist on the Orient Express and comes to a dramatic conclusion in A Vampire in Bavaria. All three volumes were published in 2021 and are available as ebooks. The paperback editions are a little harder to get hold of. There is also a Miss Sharp novella – A Study in Sirens, offered to people who sign up to Follow Suzannah Rowntree.
Normally I only write about the first book in a series but in this case the distinctive merits of the trilogy don’t really become apparent until the second and third volumes. Miss Sharp’s Monsters is a continuous story set in a version of late 19th century Europe in which most countries are ruled by dynasties of monsters. Only the British royal family claims to be human. The story begins in London, at Saint Botolph’s Hospital for the Reception of Penitent Working Girls, and is related by ninja lady’s maid Liz Sharp. Like most of the inmates at St Botolph’s, Liz cannot remember her life before she came there but does know that she was disfigured in a werewolf-attack which left her with unusual powers of strength and stamina. After demonstrating her martial arts skills, Liz is hired by the Duchess of Teck to act as a lady’s maid and bodyguard to her daughter, May, a minor princess who is being lined up to marry one of Queen Victoria’s sons.
Liz is keen to leave St Botolph’s though she knows that she will miss the friends she has made there. When she learns that one of these friends has been brutally murdered in Whitechapel, probably by a werewolf, Liz decides to investigate. She suspects that the murderer stalking women in the streets of London may be one of the German Princes who are well known to be werewolves. In the course of her investigations, Liz encounters upright policeman, Inspector Alexander Short, and the highly untrustworthy Russian Grand Duke, Vasily, who is a vampire. Matters come to a head during an eventful stay at the Scottish castle of Balmoral. While Princess May is getting to know her intended husband, and his bashful brother, Prince George, Liz is discovering some very dark secrets about the British royal family. After a night of terror, nothing will be the same again.
In Anarchist on the Orient Express Princess May and her family are travelling abroad to recover from recent events. Liz’s special talents as a bodyguard are soon needed when May puzzlingly becomes the target of attacks by an Anarchist group. One of the Anarchists, a man called Anton, claims to recognize Liz as his long-lost lover, Vera. Liz is determined to protect her royal mistress but is reluctant to hand over to the merciless authorities the one person who may be able to tell her about her forgotten past. As they journey east on the Orient Express Liz’s problems mount when she realizes that Anton is hidden on the train and she needs to keep him apart from Inspector Short who has arrived with Prince George to offer extra protection to May. Another passenger is exiled Russian vampire Duke Vasily who tries to pressure Liz into being his bodyguard too. When Vasily and May are both carried off to a castle in Hungary which is the headquarters of a ruthless Anarchist organization, Liz faces a traumatic reunion with her own family. It is time for Liz/Vera to decide which side she is really on.
After escaping from Hungary with the aid of Inspector Short, Liz and her companions arrive in Coburg at the start of A Vampire in Bavaria just in time to foil another Anarchist plot. Princess May, who has recently learned the truth about the British royal family, is not happy to discover that she is now officially engaged to Prince George. Representatives of all the royal families of Europe have gathered in Coburg to celebrate a marriage between two of Victoria’s grandchildren. Vasily sees this as an opportunity to steal their jewellery but Liz wants to uncover the secrets of the Royal Kabale which dominates Europe. When those secrets turn out to be even more horrific than she had imagined, Liz is determined to fight the Kabale even though this will put her on the wrong side of the law and alienate the man she has come to love. As Miss Sharp makes new enemies and finds unexpected allies, can she win her personal war against the monsters?
This trilogy skillfully blends many different sub-genres and should appeal to lovers of Mystery, Gaslight Romance and Horror. At one level, this is a dashing Steampunk adventure with larger than life characters, the obligatory airship battle, and American self-made men armed with prosthetic weapons. There is always something exciting going on in these fast-paced novels, with no lack of thrilling fights and daring escapes. Miss Sharp and Inspector Short are the opposites-attract detecting duo, investigating such mysteries as the Ripper-like murders in The Werewolf of Whitechapel and the kidnappings in Anarchist on the Orient Express. He believes in following the rules, even in a corrupt society, and she is the maverick he learns to respect.
Rowntree keeps the romantic tension simmering away throughout the series by providing Liz with three possible love-interests. These are seductive vampire, Vasily, and two men on opposite sides of the law – handsome, honourable but slightly dull Inspector Short and Anton, the passionate, vengeful Anarchist whose love Liz cannot remember. In addition there is a very slow-moving romance between shy, emotionally incoherent, Prince George, and dauntingly virtuous and self-controlled Princess May. History tells us that this inhibited couple did eventually marry and become sovereigns of Great Britain but for much of the trilogy it is hard to imagine how this is ever going to happen. Rowntree exploits the humour of May and George’s situation but there is an underlying seriousness to the way that she treats Liz’s love life. One of the contenders is put out of the running by doing something to Liz without her consent. She has had too much done to her in the past to tolerate this. The one thing that Liz needs is to feel in control of her own destiny again.
The Horror elements of the story are treated seriously too. Transforming criminals and political protestors into mind-washed, shambling, rotting Zombie policemen may sound absurd but when Liz encounters some of these Zombies in Paris, and realizes that this will be her ex-lover’s fate if she turns him in, the effect is far from comical. Linking the royal families of Europe with monsters appropriate to their cultural background, such as Werewolves, Vampires, Sirens and Melusines, serves to emphasize the absolute power of the ruling classes in pre-democratic times. That power is literally paid for in human blood and the royal monsters prey on their subjects at will. Even in countries like England where the rule of law has been established, members of the ruling class are shown getting away with rape and murder.
Some of this seems rather hard on blameless historical personages such as the gentle Danish Princess, Alexandra, who is depicted as a Siren prone to removing people’s true memories and replacing them with false ones. Rowntree is also tough on fellow Fantasy author, Queen Marie of Romania (1875-1938), who is the chief villainess in A Vampire in Bavaria. It does however turn out to be true that Marie was originally supposed to marry Prince George, and that later on her appalling son King Carol II of Romania was accused of being a Vampire. This trilogy will probably send you racing to books or the internet to look up the histories of all the intriguing royal persons involved. Then you’ll discover that the truth often is at least as strange as fiction.
Vital facts about their family history and the society they are part of have been concealed from both Liz Sharp and Princess May. Learning the truth does not make either of them happy but it does set them free to follow their own consciences. Prim, doll-like Princess May (King Charles’ great-grandmother) initially seems a very unlikely Fantasy action-heroine but she gradually becomes a staunch ally to her far from subservient lady’s maid. Both women face the problem of being attracted to basically decent men who are part of a corrupt establishment. Liz is accused of being a class-traitor because of her determination to protect her royal mistress. At first it seems obvious that Liz should side with persecuted freedom-fighters like Anton but an incident in which a bomb is thrown into a restaurant full of innocent people changes her view of the Anarchists.
Later Liz encounters an Anarchist leader who has become even more ruthless and cruel than the monsters they are fighting. This leaves Liz grappling with the perpetual problem of whether the ends justify the means and she has to choose between the ideals of the person she used to be and those of the person she has become. I certainly found my own allegiances shifting to and fro in the course of the trilogy. Through it all Liz clings to the belief that people, even monstrous ones, can change for the better and should be given the chance to do so. Liz Sharp may have supernatural strength but her true superpower is a firm grasp of ethics. That makes a refreshing change. If you find that you enjoy Miss Sharp’s Monsters as much as I did, Rowntree has now written another trilogy set in the same fictional world – Miss Dark’s Apparitions (2022-2023) – whose cast includes the semi-reformed Duke Vasily. Until next month…
Geraldine