The Fox and the Devil by Kiersten White

TL;DR: A great, slow paced historical paranormal fantasy.
Source: NetGalley, thank you so much!

Plot: Doctor Van Helsing’s daughter chases his killer and gets caught up in much more.
Characters: I loved a lot of this cast of characters. In fact I’d love to read another book focused on the others.
Setting: This was a great part to this. Each setting was so strong and lovely I felt like I could see it.
Fantasy: This one has some roots in Dracula but also some strong roots in folklore which was refreshing.

Summary:

Anneke has a complicated relationship with her father, Abraham Van Helsing—doctor, scientist, and madman devoted to studying vampires—up until the night she comes home to find him murdered, with a surreally beautiful woman looming over his body. A woman who leaves no trace behind, other than the dreams and nightmares that plague Anneke every night.

Spurred by her desire for vengeance and armed with the latest in forensic and investigatory techniques, Anneke puts together a team of detectives to catch her mysterious serial killer. Because her father isn’t the only inexplicably dead body. There’s a trail of victims across Europe and Anneke is certain they’re all connected.

But during the years spent relentlessly hunting the killer, Anneke keeps some crucial evidence to infuriatingly coy letters, addressed only to Anneke, occasionally soaked in blood, and always signed Diavola. Devil. The obsession is mutual, and all the more dangerous for it.

The closer Anneke gets to her devil, though, the less sense the world makes. Maybe her father wasn’t a madman, after all. Diavola might be something much worse than a serial killer . . . and much harder to destroy. Because as Anneke unearths more of Diavola’s tragic past, she suspects there’s still a heart somewhere in that undead body.

A heart that beats for Anneke alone.

Thoughts:

My one and only complaint on this book was just that it moved fairly slow and felt a long. At under 400 pages it most definitely is not, but my experience was a bit of a trudge. Was it worth it in the ultimate payoff? I think so, and I’d still recommend it.

This one is about Anneke, the daughter of Doctor Van Helsing. She’s working as a independent investigator with the police as she attempts to track down the individual that killed her father. Of course no one believes her, but things begin to quickly spiral out. She, through happenstance, assembles a small team and they begin to hunt this serial killer, all of it culminating at the Paris Exhibition in 1900.

The roots of this story sit in folklore, and perhaps not the folklore you expect. There is a sapphic relationship as well that helps tug the plot along. The setting and the tension of the hunt and crimes are so well done, and while I felt like I was reading this forever I still enjoyed myself.

If you want something filled with revenge, longing, and the struggles of a woman in this time I can’t recommend this one enough. It’s grisly, sad, and intense. Well worth the read!