As wonderful as series are to read, it’s always a nice treat to read a good standalone fantasy book. And while this book is fantasy, it felt so ingrained in the real medieval world that other than some of the fantasy details, I had to keep reminding myself that this wasn’t set in our world. In particular, the engineering aspects of building the cathedral really came to life. Readers should keep in mind that while this is a fantasy setting, the fantasy elements are not the focus of this book. The beginning has the perfect amount of backstory and setting combined with some immediate action. I was hooked right away, and the pacing remained consistent and amazing throughout.
Catrin is a climber at a cathedral, and part of her duty is to make sure that everything is secure and safe, especially after a collapse has killed several builders. One day, she comes across the body of a woman she knows who has been killed in an extremely brutal fashion. This is YA so the deaths aren’t super explicit, but there’s enough detail here that I would say this is appropriate for an older YA audience as it is quite dark. While the setting is medieval, the murders gave a serious Jack the Ripper vibe, complete with the prostitute/poor angle.
When she reports the death, Simon, who specializes in cases commited by “madmen,” is assigned to investigate the murder, but then other women are killed so he and Catrin have to figure out who is doing this. Some readers might find the murderer easy to guess, others might say that they couldn’t figure it out and kept guessing different people, but I think that regardless of which path you end up on you will find the story compelling.
This combination of fantasy/history/murder mystery was a really unique one and one I’d love to see more of.
Catrin is a climber at a cathedral, and part of her duty is to make sure that everything is secure and safe, especially after a collapse has killed several builders. One day, she comes across the body of a woman she knows who has been killed in an extremely brutal fashion. This is YA so the deaths aren’t super explicit, but there’s enough detail here that I would say this is appropriate for an older YA audience as it is quite dark. While the setting is medieval, the murders gave a serious Jack the Ripper vibe, complete with the prostitute/poor angle.
When she reports the death, Simon, who specializes in cases commited by “madmen,” is assigned to investigate the murder, but then other women are killed so he and Catrin have to figure out who is doing this. Some readers might find the murderer easy to guess, others might say that they couldn’t figure it out and kept guessing different people, but I think that regardless of which path you end up on you will find the story compelling.
This combination of fantasy/history/murder mystery was a really unique one and one I’d love to see more of.