Disenchanted & Co. Books in Order

Disenchanted & Co. moves Lynn Viehl into a very different mode, but it keeps the things she does well. The series is set in the Provincial Union of Victoriana, an alternate America that lost the Revolutionary War, where class rules, odd machines, and real magic all shape daily life. The center of it is Rumsen, a city full of respectable facades and ugly secrets.

The heroine, Charmian Kittredge, better known as Kit, makes her living investigating magical crimes. That job tells you a lot about the books right away. Kit has to move between drawing rooms, alleys, shops, police offices, and haunted houses, and she never gets to stay comfortable for long. She is practical, sharp, and much harder to impress than the people around her. One of the fun tensions in the series is that Kit does not start out eager to believe every supernatural claim she hears, even though her cases keep dropping her into exactly that kind of trouble.

The first book, Disenchanted & Co., sets the tone with a supposed curse, social scandal, and a family that is hiding much more than bad behavior. Kit takes what looks like a private case and finds herself pushed toward a much larger threat. Along the way she has to deal with the unwanted interest of Lucien Dredmore, a powerful deathmage, as well as the scrutiny of the police chief inspector. That mix of danger, attraction, and professional pride gives the series its rhythm.

Kit never gets an easy job.

By the time The Clockwork Wolf begins, the world has widened. The mystery moves into public panic, ugly old grudges, and the kind of engineered menace suggested by the title itself. Viehl plays with the pleasure of a city rumor gone bad, where everyone thinks they know what monster is loose, but the real answer is messier and more dangerous. Mechanical threats, old magic, and class resentment all rub against each other until the whole setting feels unstable in a good way.

What makes this series stand out is the blend. It is part steampunk mystery, part paranormal romance, and part alternate-history detective story. The gadgets matter, but so do reputation, money, family, and who gets believed when things go wrong. Rumsen is not just wallpaper. Its manners, hierarchies, and anxieties shape every case Kit takes.

If you like a smart, stubborn investigator, a city with its own personality, and mysteries that keep widening as the heroine digs deeper, this is the draw. Start with Disenchanted & Co. and then go straight into The Clockwork Wolf, because the fun comes from watching Kit learn that almost every tidy explanation in her world is covering something stranger underneath.