Questionable Minds

Enter a "steam-psi" Victorian world where newly discovered mental abilities are changing everything — and may have given Jack the Ripper a path to absolute power. In Victorian England, 1888, some say Sir Simon Taggart is under the punishment of God. In a world awash with mentalist powers — levitation, mesmerism, human telegraphy — the baronet is unique, possessing mental shields that render him immune to any psychic assault. Even his friends think it's a curse, cutting him off from the next step in human mental and spiritual evolution. To Simon, it's a blessing. Four years ago, the Guv'nor, mystery overlord of the London underworld, arranged the murder of Simon's wife Agnes. Obsessed with finding who hired the Guv'nor, Simon works alongside Inspector Hudnall and Miss Grey in Scotland Yard's Mentalist Investigation Department. Immunity to telegraphy, clairvoyance and mesmerism are an asset in his work — but they may not be enough to crack the latest case. A mysterious killer has begun butchering Whitechapel streetwalkers. With every killing, the man newspapers call "the Ripper" grows in mental power and in the brutality of his attacks. Is murder all that's on his mind or does he have an endgame? What plans does the Guv'nor have for the Whitechapel killer? And how many lives is Simon willing to sacrifice to get the answers he craves? Questionable Minds is set in a Victorian England struggling to preserve the social hierarchy while mentalism threatens to overturn it. The cast of characters includes Dr. Henry Jekyll (and yes, his friend Edward Hyde too) and multiple other figures from history and fiction. It has a tormented, morally compromised protagonist, serial-killer villain, a devoted father-daughter relationship and a passionate but complicated love affair. Trigger Warning: Multiple brutal murders. Nineteenth-century sexism and imperialism. A child in danger.