The Secret Chapter

The Secret Chapter (Invisible Library 6)- Genevieve Cogman
Ace
Release Date: January 7, 2020

Rating:
📚📚📚📚

Warning: Some Spoilers Ahead!

Synopsis: A Librarian’s work is never done, and Irene is summoned to the Library. The world where she grew up is in danger of veering deep into chaos, and she needs to obtain a particular book to stop this from happening. Her only choice is to contact a mysterious Fae information-broker and trader of rare objects: Mr. Nemo.

Irene and Kai make their way to Mr. Nemo’s remote Caribbean island and are invited to dinner, which includes unlikely company. Mr. Nemo has an offer for everyone there: he wants them to steal a specific painting from a specific world. But to get their reward, they will have to form a team, including a dragon techie, a Fae thief, a gambler, a driver, and the muscle. Their goal? The Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, in an early twenty-first-century world, where their toughest challenge might be each other.

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A Librarian's main job is to collect unique books from different worlds in order to stabilize those worlds between the forces of chaos and order.  Irene may have accidentally found herself getting more involved with politics lately (The Mortal Word), but when she learns that the world where she went to boarding school is mysteriously tipping into chaos, she's determined to get the manuscript necessary to save it.  The only problem is, the manuscript is currently in the hands of the secretive Fae Mr. Nemo, and in order to get her hands on it, Irene is going to have to do something for him: steal a specific painting from a specific world with the help of Kai, a Fae thief, a Fae gambler, a Fae driver, a Fae thug and a dragon techie.  What could possibly go wrong?

Genevieve Cogman says it herself: at some point, you knew there had to be a heist.  And more than the garden variety 'acquiring' of books that makes up the main work of a Librarian.  Think James Bond meets The Italian Job, Ocean's Eleven, and any other heist movie you can think of, add scheming Fae and a dash of dragon politics and you have The Secret Chapter.  The world in question is under heavy control of CENSOR, a police force whose cameras are everywhere and who will raid a place looking for demons, vampires, or werewolves at the drop of a hat.  This, of course, is less than optimal for a group of thieves who need to steal a gigantic painting from Vienna's most famous museum.  

Irene is her usual excellent self: trying to keep Kai and dragon Indigo from killing each other, trying to keep the unlikely mix of characters organized in order to steal the painting and putting their individual agendas on hold- all with the least violence necessary.  She has a deadline to save a world and is determined to do it.  What's interesting is that despite her doubts of her own morals or ethics, she does actually have them.  Sometimes this is highly inconvenient since it makes her try to get everyone out of a situation alive instead of going for the easy way out, but I found it rather comforting.  She's a more complex and relatable character because of her morals, and because she questions whether she has them.

We get to see a more of Irene's parents in Chapter than we ever have before, and it definitely shows us where Irene gets her practical attitude!  Vale and Lord Silver make almost no appearance, which on the one hand is disappointing because they are always fun, but on the other hand they wouldn't have worked in this book so it was good of Cogman to try not and fit too much in one book.  There is still a relationship between Irene and Kai that I'm not convinced of, but Cogman kept the romance basically  'off-stage', which was great as far as I was concerned.  The new Fae characters will seem like completely familiar examples of their tropes (which is the point) but Cogman intrigues readers with a few hints about Fae nature and what exactly a Fae is that I hope she'll explore in future books.  And we learn a few dragon secrets that have the potential to be highly explosive in the future.  

The Secret Chapter drags a little  sometimes as Cogman sets the scene, but overall this is one of her better in the series.  Between intriguing secrets, expected betrayals, unexpected betrayals, dragon fights, and sharks, it has plenty to enjoy.  For me, the best part of a Genevieve Cogman book is her writing style: full of dry humor, rapier sharp wit, beautiful descriptions, and delightfully detailed world(s) building.  One of Cogman's greatest skills is her ability to create an image in only a few words and letting the reader'a imagination take it from there.  A perfect example? Levitating corgis.    

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Trace of Deceit

A Trace of Deceit- Karen Odden
William Morrow/HarperCollins Publishers
Release Date: December 17, 2019

Rating:
📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: A young painter digs beneath the veneer of Victorian London’s art world to learn the truth behind her brother’s murder... 

Edwin is dead. That’s what Inspector Matthew Hallam of Scotland Yard tells Annabel Rowe when she discovers him searching her brother’s flat for clues. While the news is shocking, Annabel can’t say it’s wholly unexpected, given Edwin’s past as a dissolute risk-taker and art forger, although he swore he’d reformed. After years spent blaming his reckless behavior for their parents’ deaths, Annabel is now faced with the question of who murdered him—because Edwin’s death was both violent and deliberate. A valuable French painting he’d been restoring for an auction house is missing from his studio: find the painting, find the murderer. But the owner of the artwork claims it was destroyed in a warehouse fire years ago.

As a painter at the prestigious Slade School of Art and as Edwin’s closest relative, Annabel makes the case that she is crucial to Matthew’s investigation. But in their search for the painting, Matthew and Annabel trace a path of deceit and viciousness that reaches far beyond the elegant rooms of the auction house, into an underworld of politics, corruption, and secrets someone will kill to keep.  

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Annabel Rowe has been slowly working to reconcile with her brother Edwin, but one day she arrives at his flat to discover two detectives there with the news that Edwin is dead.  Murdered, with a valuable painting he had been cleaning now missing.  Annabel needs to understand what happened to her brother to gain some closure on his death (and life) and she convinces Inspector Matthew Hallam that her knowledge of the art world and Edwin will prove valuable to discovering his murderer.  But what they discover is the darkness behind the art world, where secrets fester and can prove worth killing for.

A Trace of Deceit is an engrossing Victorian mystery with a strong central figure in Annabel.  A student at the Slade Art School, she is trying to find her place in the masculine world of painting.  She sees herself as an observer instead of a participant in the world and holds herself apart from fellow students and her older brother, trying to prevent herself from being hurt.  But Annabel is only fooling herself- she's a caring, compassionate woman who feels deeply.  Edwin's death hits her hard, but she finds strength in working with Matthew to discover the killer.  She doesn't shy away from hard truths, although she might not think of them as automatically as a more cynical person would.  And there are plenty of hard truths about Edwin that she has to accept in order to understand his murder.

Where Odden's A Dangerous Duet brought readers into intimate contact with the city of London, A Trace of Deceit focuses on its people.  Like Annabel herself, we focus on how they interact, what they show, and what they hide.  We see through the eyes of a painter the light and the dark that make up the world around Annabel and Matthew.  Odden uses this not only to give the reader brilliant descriptions of the lives around our heroes, but to plant red herrings and clues with equal strength, forcing the reader to continually adjust their view of what seems, at first, to be a simple murder.  

Engrossing from start to finish, A Trace of Deceit will keep readers guessing from start to finish, in a book impossible to put down until the last stone is unturned and the last secret is revealed.  Full of heart and empathy, Odden explores how individuals deal with personal and family tragedies, betrayals, and secrets.  A must read for fans of Sherry Thomas, Anne Perry, and Victorian mystery lovers everywhere.

Madness of Sunshine

A Madness of Sunshine- Nalini Singh
Berkley Publishing/Penguin Group
Release Date: December 3, 2019 

Rating:
📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: On the rugged West Coast of New Zealand, Golden Cove is more than just a town where people live. The adults are more than neighbors; the children, more than schoolmates. 

That is until one fateful summer—and several vanished bodies—shatters the trust holding Golden Cove together. All that’s left are whispers behind closed doors, broken friendships, and a silent agreement to not look back. But they can’t run from the past forever. 

Eight years later, a beautiful young woman disappears without a trace, and the residents of Golden Cove wonder if their home shelters something far more dangerous than an unforgiving landscape.  

It’s not long before the dark past collides with the haunting present and deadly secrets come to light.

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A Madness of Sunshine is a departure from Nalini Singh's usual paranormal romance (Wolf Rain, Archangel's War).  A psychological thriller with a bit of romance on the edges, Sunshine dives deep into the darkness that is people.  Whether small town or large city, rich or poor, everyone has their secrets- and suddenly those secrets could mean the difference between life and death in Golden Cove, New Zealand.  When Anahera returns to Golden Cove and a young woman disappears, Anahera and her friends find themselves remembering the disappearances of three hikers when they were teens.  The disappearances were a decade apart so they couldn't be related. Could they?

 Singh does her usual masterful job in creating three-dimensional characters (whether primary, secondary, or brief walk-ons) and Golden Cove, the surrounding jungles and beaches, and New Zealand itself become as much a character as any of the people. The sense of place is incredibly strong, and the reader is instantly drawn into the wild West Coast of New Zealand.  Anahera is a strong and wonderful person- damaged and trying to piece herself together again, she is trying to find ways to deal with the loss of her mother and husband, her husband's betrayal, and coming back to Golden Cove both opens old wounds and helps heal them. Will, Golden Cove's only police officer, is an outsider who was moved in to deal with tourists after his superiors worry he's burned himself out on a case that ended in flames and still haunts him.  He's smart enough to know the locals may be friendly, but they aren't going to share secrets with someone from outside- even before danger hits.  He may be hiding and piecing himself together as well, but he worries some parts of himself have burned away for ever.

The mystery is full of clues and red herrings, hints that seem like red herrings until the end and shocking twists and turns the whole way through.  Full of descriptions of lush jungle trails, crashing ocean waves, and both the best and worst of human nature, A Madness of Sunshine will be a joy for long-time Nalini Singh fans and a revelation for new-comers.  A book you won't be able to put down once you've started, A Madness of Sunshine shines bright among new thrillers.    

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review