Plot Synopsis

London, 1930s: Rachel Savernake has been invited to a private view of an art exhibition at a fashionable gallery. The artist, Damaris Gethin, known as ‘the Queen of Surrealism’, is debuting a show featuring live models pretending to be waxworks of famous killers. Before her welcoming speech, Damaris asks a haunting favour of the amateur sleuth: she wants Rachel to solve her murder. As Damaris takes to a stage set with a guillotine, the lights go out. There is a cry and the blade falls. Damaris has executed herself.

While Rachel questions why Damaris would take her own life – and just what she meant by ‘solve my murder’ – fellow party guest Jacob Flint is chasing a lead on a glamorous socialite with a sordid background. As their paths merge, this case of false identities, blackmail, and fedora-adorned doppelgängers, will descend upon a grand home on Sepulchre Street, where nothing – and no one – is quite what it seems.

Review

Thanks to Netgalley and Aria & Aries for this e-ARC.

This is the second Rachel Savernake novel that I’ve read and the fourth book featuring her. If you have not read the other books there may be some minor character connections that you’ll be missing, but overall it doesn’t really effect the main story or mystery.

Rachel Savernake is at it again as she is tasked with solving the “murder” of Damaris Gethin. Who has set her on this road to mystery? Why, Damaris herself has tasked Rachel with solving her murder only moments before she seemingly takes her own life by guillotine.

Perhaps it’s because I’ve read other Rachel Savernake novels, but I actually found this quite easy to solve. While there were a few twists and turns regarding the relations of several characters, I solved the main mystery pretty early on. While I did enjoy the overall plot, I just found the characters to be unlikable.

There is pretty much no backstory or interpersonal relationship building for Rachel or Jacob, both of whom are main characters that feature in other novels. Honestly I mostly was rooting for KiKi. I thought her story was the most humane and understandable. You could easily see how her story ebbed and flowed and her character flaws made sense. With Rachel you have a haughty rich lady who likes murder and everyone wants to screw. And Jacob is the puppy newspaper man who writes about murders. It’s just too convenient.

All in all I give this 2 out of 5 stars. The plot was predictable mostly and I kind of hate the main characters. I think maybe Martin Edward’s murder mysteries just aren’t for me.