The Zeppelin Deception

Book Title: The Zeppelin Deception

Author: Colleen Gleason

Series: Stoker & Holmes #5

Date Started: August 24th 2019

Date Completed: August 24th 2019

Genres: Historical, Romance, Mystery, Adventure

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Stars

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

Stoker & Holmes has been a guilty pleasure of mine for about three years, and I'm a little sad to see it end. The Zeppelin Deception does a good job of satisfying wrapping up the series to the point where I enjoyed it a little more than the others, actually. It didn't have loads of filler crammed in to make it longer; it just focused on finishing the story.

So pacing was a real strength in the final instalment, but it still didn't stop the completely unnecessary descriptions. I really don't need to have two pages reporting on every piece of food eaten or every outfit worn. I really don't care. Yes, the designs (particularly of clothes) are pretty cool with the Steampunk element prevalent in this series, but I'm not here for a catwalk or a buffet. Take a paragraph (if that) and then move on, please.

But, regardless, The Zeppelin Deception was very disciplined in wrapping up the series as a whole. The temptation in a final instalment is to throw in loads of last-minute twists for the sake of it, but this ultimately ends up either confusing the resolution or just completely changing the game you're supposed to be wrapping up. What this book did was give enough of a new plot to get momentum up, but then allowed the characters to naturally follow their own lines of suspicion that have been building up over five books to finally end the series. (And that's not to say that there weren't any final twists - oh, there definitely are - but they aren't at the expense of the final resolution.)

A book where the characters are allowed to be themselves with (mostly) no consequences - while unrealistic, especially in Victorian London - is really nice to read. I'm not here to gather material for an in-depth essay, I'm here for an enjoyable, easy read. And, whether deliberate or not, Gleason takes full advantage of that in her creative license; our imagination is already stretched so use it to give the reader things they will genuinely get joy from. For example, these books are 60% fluffy romance - totally valid anyway. But it's not my thing, yet a couple like Mina and Grayling are cute enough for me to forget about that for a while. Why not?

It's quite a sappy ending, but sometimes that's enjoyable. Stoker & Holmes are definitely a guilty pleasure and aren't works of Shakespeare, but they've been a lot of fun to read.