I have a very hairy man in The Darkest Days. You might recall him from an earlier book as well, when he was locked in Bedlam and Vic set him free.
When Vic set him free, he’d escaped London and returned to a cabin in the woods his mother had built for him before she died. Turns out it’s in Litchfield. To be precise, it’s in the woods neighboring Jacko & Alice’s estate.
So when sweet little Daisy gets her throat torn out, naturally the locals blame the ‘wolfman’.
So Vic has to save him again, only he’s in a terrible condition. He’s starving and hasn’t had a bath in six months and his hair is matted right down to the skin. Vic cuts off as much as she can but once she takes him back to London to live at her house, she plans to contact her brother-in-law and not just to fix his teeth, which are all brown. In case you don’t remember, David is an extremely brilliant fellow who loves to build new things, thus explaining why Vic has an electric refrigerator years before they are commercially available. So it should be of no surprise that David creates an electric shaver for Richard, the Were Wolf man.
The main shaving device in the late 19th century was the straight edge. And in England, the blade would have been Sheffield silver steel. This product was the finest steel in the world and is still used in France even today.
But to shave using a straight edge would by a full time job for poor Richard, and he’d spend most of his day naked shaving one limb or another.
Fortunately, David has a great deal of inventor friends in America. His friend Gillette sends him a great many disposable safety razor blades to use in his current project. Using a large electric motor that sits on the floor with a cord to the device, his contraption has two razor blades moving backwards and forwards ever so slightly, with safety features to prevent the skin from being cut. It only has one speed and can’t be used near water, which means a dry cut only, but Richard thinks it is the finest creation ever.
With Richard’s electrically driven device, it greatly speeds up his shaving time. In fact, if he only shaves the areas people will see when he’s wearing a suit, he’s presentable in two hours. For the first time in his life, Richard can appear ‘human’.
And to this day an electric razor remains the main solution for those who suffer from Hypertrichosis.
And how advanced was David’s creation of an electric razor? Schick presented his first patent for an electric razor in 1921. However, everything needed to build an electric razor was available in 1895, only electricity did not run in most homes yet and rich men, who did have electricity, normally had servants to shave them with a straight edge and middle-class men went to a barber or did it themselves. To be honest, even in 1931 when Shick created a business to sell electric razors, they weren’t very popular and he struggled to keep his business alive.
But the one David built for Richard was the finest gift imaginable.
WARNING: we don’t get to actually see Richard use his shaver in the book. He had already moved out of Vic’s house by the time David built it. But the book does tell you where he went.
When the pot has too many cooks a feast can be ruined, and that’s exactly what happens with Xavier and Vic’s new cases. Each proves more complicated than initially thought with criminals dropping out of the sky, wreaking havoc upon Xavier, Vic, and their excellent employees. By the end, Vic threatens to open a school that teaches criminals how to stay out of each other’s way.
Worse yet, a treasured member of the staff is shot in the heart while attempting to save Vic and the Queen’s cousin.
“Everyone, to the tree now,” Jacko insisted, wishing he had Xavier’s ability to boss people around. When he was a pirate, he had no problems getting his crew to do as he asked. If they didn’t, he’d just shoot them and toss their body overboard, but that was a different time in his life and he had different standards. For a pirate, he was considered a great captain to ship with. Now he had an ambiguous position. While he was the ‘master’ of the big house, Alice actually managed the farmers.
“Now!” he snapped, using his captain’s voice.
Startled, the men moved to the tree.
Jacko opened both doors. As he set up the camera, he cursed the dimness still enveloping Daisy’s body. He had very little chance of capturing any details.
Just as he was about to give up this endeavor, a beam of sunshine came through the doors and pierced the darkness surrounding her body.
He managed to take three pictures before the farmers rushed inside.
“God Almighty! What was done to the poor girl?”
“Looks like something ripped her throat out.”
“But what could do that?”
Frederick spoke from the door. “I’ll tell you what it was. It’s the werewolf. It killed my Daisy and if we don’t send it back to hell, it’s going to slaughter us all.”
Not one farmer seemed to think his accusation ridiculous. In fact, they insisted they should go at once and hunt the creature down.
The Darkest Days
Book 6
Free with Amazon Kindle Unlimited
Need to catch up?
Book 1
The Troublesome Apprentice
Book 2
The Missing Partner
Book 2.5
A Right to Love
Book 3
The Mesmerist
Book 4
Well Kept Secrets
Book 5
Pack of Trouble
All Xavier & Vic books are Free with Amazon Unlimited
Liza O’Connor was raised badly by feral cats, left the South/Midwest and wandered off to find nicer people on the east coast. There she worked for the meanest man on Wall Street, while her psychotic husband tried to kill her three times. (So much for finding nicer people.) Then one day she declared enough, got a better job, divorced her husband, and fell in love with her new life where people behaved nicely. But all those bad behaviors has given her lots of fodder for her humorous books. Please buy these books, because otherwise, she’ll become grumpy and write troubled novels instead. They will likely traumatize you.
You have been warned.
Mostly humorous books by Liza:
Ghost Lover—Two British brothers fall in love with the same young woman. Ancestral ghost is called in to fix the situation. And there’s a ghost cat that roams about the book as well. (Humorous Contemporary Romance)
Saving Casey— Cass wakes up in the body of a troubled teen who has burned every bridge imaginable. Her only choice is to turn this life around, but that’s much harder than she ever imagined.
Untamed & Unabashed—The youngest of the Bennet sisters, Lydia, tells her story. A faithful spinoff from Pride & Prejudice.
A Long Road to Love Series: (Humorous Contemporary odd Romance)
Worst Week Ever — Laugh out loud week of disasters of Epic proportions.
Oh Stupid Heart — The heart wants what it wants, even if it’s impossible.
Coming to Reason — There is a breaking point when even a saint comes to reason.
Climbing out of Hell — The reconstruction of a terrible man into a great one.
The Hardest Love — Is to love oneself. Sam’s story.
The Adventures of Xavier & Vic Sleuth series: (Late Victorian/Mystery/Romance)
The Troublesome Apprentice — The greatest sleuth in Victorian England hires a young man who turns out to be a young woman.
The Missing Partner — Opps! The greatest sleuth in Victorian England goes missing, leaving Vic to rescue him, a suffragette, and about 100 servants. Not to mention an eviscerating cat. Yes, let’s not mention the cat.
A Right to Love — A romantic detour for Jacko. Want to see how amply rewarded Jacko was when he & Vic save an old woman from Bedlam?
The Mesmerist — The Mesmerist can control people from afar and make them murder for her. Worse yet, Xavier Thorn has fallen under her spell.
Well Kept Secrets — The problems with secrets is that they always come to light, no matter how you wish to silence them.
Pack of Trouble — Changes are a part of life, but these changes almost kill Vic.
The Darkest Days — Muddled cases make Vic very grumpy.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT
LIZA O’CONNOR
Investigate these sites:
Liza’s Blog and Website Facebook Twitter
On the Home Front: SNOW!
Movie Madness!
decorative things to hang on the walls, and wonderful conversation pieces. I started looking at these object and thought, “I should start to re-decorate my house…
Jenna Jaxon Romance--because passion is timeless. 