Ghosts of Manhattan, by George Mann; published 2010, 236 pages.

A fascinating melange of steampunk, noir detective, and properly researched alternative history, with notes of the supernatural dusted across the top for good measure. Add a bit of solid character study and more than a little rock ’em sock ’em action, and this makes for an entertaining read.

Readers will be somewhat perplexed by the admixture of steam-powered automobiles and gasoline-powered biplanes, Tesla coils and tommy guns. Don’t get too fussed. It’s all just window dressing for a story about a man driven by creeping madness and an all-consuming, brilliantly pure love.
Not a lot of nuance from the characters, actually. Nor from the plot. It’s just a bit of fun, innit? But it is good fun.
The author has pretty obviously never been in a fight, nor lost much blood, nor experienced a crippling injury. Or perhaps he has, but reckons that the dismissal of such realities is allowable within a story written in the tradition of the old pulps. Men are real men. Women are real women. Villains are purely and irredeemably villainous, and heroes are as uncompromising as the stones from which they are obviously carved.
Or perhaps he’s writing for Hollywood?

Really. It’s just a bit of fun. Raucous, well-written, engaging fun. Definitely worth a couple afternoons of your attention.
Just don’t expect too much more than that, and you’ll come out all right.
Unlike the villains.