The Executioner's Handbook — Scott E. Douglas

Magic will get you killed. If its practice doesn't cause you to spontaneously combust, then the Department of Public Protection will happily oblige, igniting you in a “safe and predictable” manner in a place that endangers nobody. When alchemist Alexander Hancock was commissioned by a suffragette journalist named Isadore Moorcock to help find her father, his answer was no. Risk his life looking for a journalist who'd gone missing while researching a Magic Cult? He had better things to do than that... well... not really... but his answer was still no. That was until he found himself on a train ride to trouble. Now he'll be lucky to avoid being ignited on one of the Department's wooden stakes.