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blewballoon's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This isn't my favorite in the Lily Adler Mysteries series. I listened to the audiobook, so apologies if I spell any names wrong in this review. Lily was off her game here, she was clearly dealing with some internal struggles, so I feel like the choices she made could be explained by that, but that doesn't mean I liked them. I don't love that she spent the night with Mr. Spencer, and I'm glad it was just a "fade to black" very vague implication, but I probably feel the same way Ofelia does about it and understand that she's a grown woman and can have her impulsive fun if she wants. It felt out of character based on what we've seen of her, but she's in new territory emotionally and finding her footing as a widow out of mourning. It was much harder for me to accept her snapping so harshly at Ophelia. It definitely made it clear that Lily was Not Herself. I really missed the presence of Captain Jack and Bow Street constable Simon Page, especially after we got some of Mr. Page's perspective in the last book that I sincerely enjoyed. I also missed Lily's staff and the young boy that Captain Jack hired in the first book. I did love meeting her Aunts and getting some perspective chapters from Ofelia. One thing I really like about this series is how much diversity it includes and how it shows that lots of different people existed in this time period just going about their normal lives. In my opinion, the new family and staff that we meet for the murder were not as interesting or sympathetic as the past families and murder victims had been, and I thought the investigation aspect wasn't as strong. It felt like they were running around in circles with how many times we had to revisit people and scenes. I assumed from the start that it was one of two characters, and I ended up being right but not really happy about it.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Blood, and Murder
Minor: Gun violence, Sexual content, and Violence