Nancy Parker’s Diary Of A Detective by Julia Lee

The Blurb On The Back:

When Nancy Parker gets her first position as a housemaid to the very modern Mrs Bryce, it’s not exactly her dream job – she’d rather be out and about solving mysteries. But she soon discovers that there are plenty of mysteries right on her doorstep.

Who’s sneaking about stealing silver and jewels? What is Cook’s dark secret? And, most thrilling of all, could Mrs Bryce be mixed up in murder?

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Julia Lee’s historical mystery novel for children aged 9+ (the first in a series) is a good alternative for fans of the WELLS AND WONG SERIES. I particularly liked that Nancy is from a working class background as it gives her a different perspective to the more privileged Quentin and Ella but I wish Lee hadn’t made her so bad at spelling as it makes her seem uneducated and less intelligent than she is. Ella’s smart and academic and has snobbish preconceptions about Nancy and Quentin but I liked the warm relationship she has with her father (a bit of a vague professor type) and the way she really wants to help. My favourite character was Quentin, the forgotten son of thoroughly unpleasant parents, who wants to be a secret agent but who’s managed to alienate himself at boarding school and is taking remedial lessons because he’s not as smart as he thinks he is. All three characters need the friendship that develops between them and I loved how Lee gives them all separate storylines that shows what they think of each other and how their preconceptions change as the storylines come together. I think that Lee could have made more of the period than she does, but I believed in the reactions characters had to things like films and motor cars as they began to pick up in popularity and became more affordable. All in all, I thought this was an entertaining read and I look forward to the sequel.

NANCY PARKER’S DIARY OF A DETECTIVE was released in the United Kingdom on 3rd March 2016. Thanks to Amazon Vine for the ARC of this book.

The Relic Guild by Edward Cox

The Blurb On The Back:

It was said the Labyrinth had once been the great meeting place, a sprawling city at the heart of an endless maze where a million humans hosted the Houses of the Aelfir.

But when the Thaumaturgists, overlords of human and Aelfir alike, went to war, everything was ruined and the Labyrinth became an abandoned prison. The surviving humans were trapped behind boundary walls a hundred feet high, and all magic was forbidden.

And now the war is returning. The Relic Guild are all that stand against the end of the city. But they are old, scattered and week, and the enemy is growing in strength …

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Edward Cox’s debut fantasy (the first in a trilogy) is set in an imaginative, well structured world and has an action-filled plot divided between two time periods (the original Relic Guild’s struggle against Fabian Moor and Clara’s attempts to deal with her magic and join the remaining Guild members). I loved the fact that Labrys Town isn’t another cod medieval fantasy world – the technology included power stones for guns and trams that take people to the different areas. However, the split plots slowed the pace and it was difficult to work out when we were and what was happening. I didn’t see why Clara needed to be a prostitute and with the exception of Old Man Sam, the Relic Guild are comprised of rather stock characters. Also two dimensional are Fabian Moor and the Genii, who don’t have much depth and are standard evil fare. My biggest issue with the book though is the abruptness of the ending, which leaves a lot of things hanging without resolution (although presumably these will be picked up in the next book). Ultimately it’s an okay read and there’s enough for me to want to read the sequel but I’m hoping that the characters can transcend the stereotypes going forward.

Thanks to Amazon Vine for the review copy of this book.