New
Strange Beasts
by Susan J. Morris
Newish Book of the Week , July 30, 2026
“Hel drew her revolver. Sam’s eyes hooked on the gleaming barrel. Oh, Hel.”
1903, in shadows cut by gaslight, Tout-Paris clutch at their pearls as a string of beastly murders thins their numbers. The Royal Society for the Study of Abnormal Phenomena sends its most successful field agent, Dr. Helena Moriarty—daughter of Sherlock Holmes’s nemesis and villain-at-large—and Samantha Harker, the Society’s most studious researcher, and daughter of Dracula’s killer. From the libraries of the Society in London to the deep catacombs of Paris, the two women must face monsters, each other, and their own names on their way to solving these mysterious murders. Can they trust each other? Could they stop themselves even if they couldn’t? Two literary legacies combine to build an intricate world of myth, intrigue, and slow-burn tension in the debut novel of (the PNW’s own) Susan J. Morris.
1903, in shadows cut by gaslight, Tout-Paris clutch at their pearls as a string of beastly murders thins their numbers. The Royal Society for the Study of Abnormal Phenomena sends its most successful field agent, Dr. Helena Moriarty—daughter of Sherlock Holmes’s nemesis and villain-at-large—and Samantha Harker, the Society’s most studious researcher, and daughter of Dracula’s killer. From the libraries of the Society in London to the deep catacombs of Paris, the two women must face monsters, each other, and their own names on their way to solving these mysterious murders. Can they trust each other? Could they stop themselves even if they couldn’t? Two literary legacies combine to build an intricate world of myth, intrigue, and slow-burn tension in the debut novel of (the PNW’s own) Susan J. Morris.
— Shane
Strange Beasts was reviewed in Newsletter #414 on July 30, 2026. For more like this, and other bookish news, sign up for the newsletter .
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