2015 book 142

William Ritter's Jackaby
First of all, I really resent that FYA keeps picking books by male authors when I'm trying to only read books by women. I also resent that this book was kind of dumb. The writing style is pseudo-old-fashioned, except when it's anachronistic (did they really say "stuff" in the 1890s?), and while there's plenty of plot and action, there isn't much character development, and most of the story is predictable. It's about a young runaway woman who's come to America and ends up working as an assistant to a paranormal Sherlock Holmes type (he sees creatures) to solve a murder. Things move along quickly, but I found the characters, especially the main girl (whose name I've already forgotten) to be pretty unbelievable. I also guessed the culprit REALLY early on, which lessened the suspense a lot. I mean, this was fine, just not particularly compelling. B.