Review of The Fox and the Devil by Kiersten White

Reluctantly coming to the conclusion Kiersten White’s books just might not be for me. The Fox and the Devil had exciting potential: a sapphic historical murder mystery with loose ties to Dracula? I was sold. However, the storytelling is so-so and the romance and characterization, while diverse and at times interesting, didn’t maintain my level of excitement.

Anneke van Helsing works, on occasion, with the Amsterdam police to solve bizarre murders. Years of studying her father’s methods have turned her into a crime-solving machine such that even her sex is not an impediment to working on cases. Yet she is haunted by a vision of a mysterious woman in white, whom Anneke believes responsible for the death of her father—Abraham van Helsing. When a contact in Budapest sends her a photo that has this mysterious woman in it, Anneke realizes one of the murders she is investigating might also be connected. This draws her and several contacts into a Europe-wide pursuit of this woman—this monster—who meanwhile has taken interest in Anneke. As the years go by, a complicated game of cat and mouse unfolds.

The historical setting at the turn of the twentieth century is interesting, especially the way White makes use of the new technology of photography and motion cameras. That being said, I didn’t like how she intersperses Anneke’s story with brief chapters of people dying at the Paris Exposition of 1900. They throw the already weird pacing of the story even further out of whack. As it is, the story sputters forward, with time jumps of several years as Anneke and her team gel and investigate murders all over the continent.

This entire time, we’re supposed to believe Anneke and Diavola have an enemies-to-lovers romantic attraction happening. I don’t know, maybe it’s the aromantic part of me that isn’t getting it … you have barely met her. You’re just exchanging letters. But you’re obsessed with her and conflicted about killing her?

The ties to Dracula are very tenuous, with White taking a lot of licence in how she reinterprets that story and characters. Which is fine! However, it means that this story really has to stand on its own merits … and it just doesn’t. There are some really fascinating ideas at the core here; however, none of those ideas really works in practice. The murder mystery isn’t much of a mystery. The antagonist really only materializes at the climax, and the book isn’t really about the antagonist. The romance, as I just opined, is slow burn in all the wrong ways. And poor Anneke, obsessed as she is with hunting Diavola, is two-dimensional at best.

The Fox and the Devil had all the hallmarks of a potentially great story, and it just didn’t come through for me. That might just be White’s style not working with my reading tastes.