Something Strange and Deadly Books in Order

Something Strange and Deadly is a Victorian-era supernatural series that begins in Philadelphia in 1876, during the Centennial Exhibition. The city is full of crowds, inventions, social rules, and one alarming new problem: the dead are getting up again. The books blend historical adventure, mystery, romance, steampunk touches, and zombies that are anything but background decoration.

Eleanor Fitt is the series' sharp-eyed heroine. Her family is already under pressure when her brother disappears, and her mother is determined to secure Eleanor's future through a respectable marriage. Then Eleanor receives a clue from an undead body, one that suggests her brother may still be alive. She has little choice but to seek help from the Spirit-Hunters, three young men who investigate supernatural threats.

Respectability quickly becomes the least of her worries.

The Spirit-Hunters bring Eleanor into a world of strange devices, occult dangers, and people who understand far more about the walking dead than she does. Daniel Sheridan, stubborn and difficult, becomes a key part of Eleanor's life, while Joseph Boyer and Jie Chen round out the group. Their work pushes Eleanor well beyond the polite life expected of a young woman in her time.

The first book, Something Strange and Deadly, follows Eleanor through a corpse-ridden Philadelphia as she searches for her brother and tries to stop the force behind the Dead. A Dawn Most Wicked is a prequel novella centered on Daniel before the main story. In A Darkness Strange and Lovely, Eleanor travels to Paris after the Spirit-Hunters leave Philadelphia, only to find a city facing its own supernatural crisis. The final novel, Strange and Ever After, takes the group to nineteenth-century Egypt for a last confrontation with the necromancer Marcus.

Across the series, Eleanor grows from someone boxed in by grief, class expectations, and family obligation into someone willing to make difficult choices about power and independence. Black magic becomes a growing concern, not a convenient answer, and the books keep asking what a person is willing to risk for those they love.

Expect brisk plots, eerie set pieces, and a heroine who would rather follow the evidence than behave nicely. Start with Something Strange and Deadly, then read the Daniel-focused novella before continuing to A Darkness Strange and Lovely and Strange and Ever After.