The Iron Assassin

"On an Earth that is not our own, Victoria never ascended the throne ... It is a time of gaslamps and regularly scheduled airship flights, of trams and steam-driven clockwork with countless smoke-belching stacks. London, the capitol of the Empire of the Lion, is a filthy, crowded, fast-growing city where a series of shocking murders threatens the throne itself. Energetic young inventor Jack Straker believes he has created a weapon to defend the Crown: a reanimated, clockwork-enhanced corpse he can control. He introduces 'the Iron Assassin' to the highly placed Lords who will decide if Straker's invention becomes a weapon of the Lion--or something to be destroyed"--