This is my first steampunk book. I enjoyed this story. And I love the fact that it was a freebie. I love when a free book is actually one that is interesting.

The Kaiser Affair starts with two detectives being assigned to capture an escaped thief, Ranulf Kaiser, who also happens to be the brother of The Minister. Bettina and Arjuna are the detectives given the task of finding Ranulf and bringing him back in without letting others know.

Bettina and Arjuna are married and I found them very entertaining. They go through a lot of trouble trying to capture Ranulf. They travel through their city and also to the floating isle and discover a lot about the isle while there.

I did learn that this series is not written by just one author but different authors which will be quite different from other series I have read before. ( )

A fantastic novel full of action and suspense! I loved the main characters and their sense of humour. The story was solid and the details were just right - not too much, but not too little. Looking forward to the other books in this series! ( )

Another awesome book by one of my favorite authors. He is the one who got me interested in reading steampunk with his Zelda Pryce Trilogy. A trilogy I highly recommend. ( )

Bettina Rothschild~Rana and her husband Arjuna are detectives for the Ministry of Justice sent out to stop a thief named Ranulf Kaiser. Ranulf Kaiser is the younger brother to Ministry of Justice Minister Gisele Kaiser. It's Bettina and Arjuna's job to return Ranulf to his prison cell as soon as possible without alerting the media of the jailbreak. Ranulf has four hour head start in Eisenstadt but that is soon cut short by Arjuna's photographic memory. Eisenstadt is full of talking birds such as pigeons, crows, and ravens. Bettina sees a raven following her decides to call him Mister Scratch. Bettina thinks they are being lead on a wild goose chase until new evidence suggests otherwise. Master spies and assassins called The Shadows usually last named Nacht tell the husband and wife team that they must keep Ranulf from accomplishing his mysterious mission. They meet up at Hidegard Goldstein's workshop where Ranulf steals autogyro to go to drifting isle called Inselmond. Can Bettina and Arjuna stop Ranulf? Why did Ranulf really break out of jail? Who are the Shadows? Who is behind Ranulf's jailbreak? Your answers await you in The Kaiser Affair.

The Kaiser Affair is my first true foray into the wildly popular steampunk genre. The story was well crafted, the characters are clever and fun, all things steam were fun and useful, and most of all the attention to detail was perfect. I can see why this genre is so wildly popular. I will definitely be adding more steampunk novels to my favorite reading genres. I look forward the next novel in this series. ( )

This is a very well written book in the genre of steampunk/mystery about two detectives going off on a chase after a criminal. The characters are very well written and definitely have their own personality; the dialogue between Bettina and Arjuna are very interesting and shows the depth/quirks of their relationship.

This book is a page-turner! It was doubtlessly full of action and kept the ball rolling. The only thing that was a little off to me about the book was that the pair of detectives went on a chase through many different people/groups of people that was seemingly meaningless to the readers. The storyline felt more linear compared to most mysteries I've read and it seemed like the detectives just meets these characters, talks to them about clues, then goes on to the next bunch of characters, asks them about clues, and so on and so forth. Author could have skipped all of the stuff in the middle without detracting from the book, OR author could have added meaning to each of the characters they met (by having them come back later in the novel, or having them add value to the story line other than giving clues to the whereabouts of the criminals). All in all, though, this book is a well-written mystery book that kept me entranced the whole way through! ( )