It is October, 1666. London is still smoking in the ruin of the Great Fire, and the horrors of mutilated bodies are mirroring events from several years ago.

With the greatest eclipse as yet seen just on the horizon, and a prophecy that the "Eye" must be found, or be lost forever, Thief Taker Charlie Tuesday begins his mad dash through London to find the Eye, and stop the murders.

Accompanied by Lily, a Romani with a serious chip on her shoulder, Charlie must solve clues relating to the Eye, while being followed by a notorious judge, a Dutch ships captain bent on destroying the British Navy, and the stranger who is committing the murders.

C.S. Quinn wove together a wonderful tale in this book, the third in a series. I haven't read the first two, and fortunately, that's not a requirement. Dark Stars is brilliant as a standalone mystery novel, giving enough history to the characters that you don't feel as though you're missing out on what created them. It is obvious that there is a past between Charlie and Lily, but the reader isn't completely left in the dark about it. 

I really enjoyed it, read it fairly quickly, and have recommended it to a few other people looking for a New Adult historical fiction mystery. It's a good one to pick up if you enjoyed the Robert Langdon series, as the plot is similar, and the pacing is as quick.

In the interest of disclosure, the publisher and NetGalley provided me with an advance copy of this book.

101. THE THIEF TAKER, BY C. S. QUINN

This is a bit of a mixed recommendation. The person who recommended it did so with the words “read it so we can discuss how awful it was afterwards”. It has to be said, though, that she’s a History researcher who specializes in 17th century (1600s) England.

Synopsis: Charlie Tuesday is a thief-taker, something like a 17th century private investigator. His business is dwindling with the outburst of plague that threatens to empty the entire city -- both because of people fleeing and because of people dying. A beautiful woman offers him lots of money to investigate her sister’s death, and Charlie is compelled to accept her offer, but once he sees the body he realizes the crime might have much deeper connections with his own life.

Overall enjoyment: I actually liked it, to the despair of my friend. I’m no historian (although I do appreciate well-done research) so the historical inaccuracies didn’t really bother me, I only cared about the story’s development. That is not to say it didn’t have problems; it did, and many, but for a first novel I thought it was a very good effort. I’ll definitely read the next one (I just found out today that it is a series...)

Plot: There is some nice suspense, and it mostly holds true through the end. I’d say it’s probably a lot more thriller than historical fiction. The story kept me turning pages until it was done. It could have been better foreshadowed, there were some inconsistencies, and sometimes the motivations aren’t very clear, but overall, it’s good enough.

Characters: Charlie is interesting, and nicely developed. Maria needs A LOT more work, though. And the other characters, nobility and commoners, are quite shallow and a bit stereotypical. The main problem here were the inconsistencies, but I’m hoping there will be less of those in future books.

World/setting: Here, I’m going to have to heed my friend’s words and give the book a negative mark. Apparently, the history is all over the place. And so is the geography. I always get suspicious of historical fiction books that don’t have a “historical note” in the end, detailing the author’s research, what liberties they took, what is historical fact, what was adapted, and what was downright made up. This book doesn’t have one, and, according to my friend, for good reason. Even when you don’t take history in consideration, there are still many inconsistencies: they are so afraid of the plague at first, but after a few chapters they will walk in plague-infested streets without taking any precaution, stuff like that.

Writing style: Pleasant enough, I suppose, although it could have been more fluid. One thing that really bothered me was how she built the romance between Charlie and Maria... Namely, there are several instances when Charlie smells her perfume, or her hair. Dude, you’ve been on the road for days. You haven’t bathed since. In fact, it’s the 1600s in Europe, so the both of you probably haven’t bathed in months. Are you seriously trying to tell me she smells good?

Representation: Not very good.

Political correctness: It’s kind of the standard thriller. The girl is only there to serve as support and love interest to the male character. She may be smart, but she’s also stupid enough to provide them with timely obstacles whenever the story needs it. She’s brave, but she doesn’t miss an opportunity to shake in fear and cling to him fetchingly (and give him a nice whiff of her perfume in the process). She’s so stereotyped she’s even supposed to smell good under the circumstances she’s in.

Up next: City of the Beasts, by Isabel Allende

Check out C.S. Quinn's zombie theory...makes my skin crawl just thinking about it but her theory does kind of make sense. 

I was very impressed with this book. This is the author, C.S. Quinn's, first book but you wouldn't know that from reading it. She did a fabulous job! The story is centered around the Great Plague that affected London in 1665 which is fascinating in itself but Quinn really sets the scene and makes you feel what those people and the city went through with the graphics and detail she uses. You can tell through her writing that she did a considerable amount of research on the Plague and old London. The characters were also unique and well-developed. I especially liked Charlie Tuesday, the thief taker and main character and I'm looking forward to hearing more about him and the Great Fire of London in Quinn's next book, Fire Catcher.

**I received this ARC from Netgalley & Thomas & Mercer in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!