Steeplejack by A. J. Hartley

This book is set in a future where whites, blacks and browns live in uneasy harmony.  One pictures South Africa but this is merely my personal supposition.   Anglet Sutonga is a teenage steeplejack.  One of if not the premier steeplejack in Bar-Selhem.  The occupation is so hazardous that being an older teen makes Anglet a rarity as she has survived the hazards of her occupation.  Steeplejacks repair and build the tops of towers and chimneys.  In Anglet’s case she stumbles into a conspiracy that is killing her apprentices, peers and community.

Hartley did an excellent job creating a community that seems to combine aspects of Victorian society with a respect for the press and uneasy race relations.  Anglet was driven by ethics and morality.   She is an excellent protagonist.  

This is the first in a series. I will be reviewing Firebrand, her next book, soon.

I highly recommend it and love the strong female protagonist.  I pleased to find that Hartley, a noted male author,  has gone out of his way to feature a strong female protagonist in this new series.

Web:  http://ajhartley.net/

This book may have been received free of charge from a publisher or a publicist. That will NEVER have a bearing on my recommendations.