The second book in an alternate history trilogy the Fall of the Gas-Lit Empire.
Format: Audio
Length: 10 hours, 20 minutes
Publication year: 2015
Narrated by: Gemma Whelan
Elizabeth Barnabas continues her double life as her brother, Elias, who is an intelligencer, a private detective, and as herself: a woman who is a fugitive from the Kingdom. The story starts with a hanging. A character from the previous book is hanged and Elizabeth is moved, seeing that it could have been her. Then all foreigners are required to hang a Kingdom flag on their windows to show that they're foreigners. Also, Elizabeth thinks that someone is watching her but she can't catch them. Her previous student, Julia, has found a charitable organization to help: women helping the deserving poor. However, when Elizabeth sees the organization's leader she thinks that the woman is in disguise. Elizabeth decides to investigate and soon finds rather sinister things.
Just like the first book in the series, the Bullet-Catcher's Daughter, Elizabeth is the only first-person narrator. She's smart and resourceful. She's going to need all her wits to survive in this book. She also needs to figure out who she can trust.
Some of the characters from the first book return. A man from the mysterious Patent Office, which seems to be the equivalent of a secret police, continues to follow Elizabeth. She hates the Patent Office so even though the man isn't necessarily a threat, she doesn't trust him. She must protect Julia who also wants to become an intelligencer, but that is not possible for women in the sexist Republic.
I enjoyed this book just as much as the first one even though the plot was focused on Elizabeth running away from her enemies than trying to solve the mystery of the organization.
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