Death by Silver

Death by Silver (2023) Melissa Scott & Amy Griswold (Lynes & Mathey #1)

Mr Edward Mathey is a metaphysician hoping to get his new practice established. Mr Julian Lynes is his friend from school and a private detective. When Ned is consulted by an old school mate, he asks Julian to assist–despite the fact the school mate was a miserable bully to them both.

“Not like Victor,” Julian said, in spite of himself. He winced inwardly, waiting for Albert to dismiss the words.

“There was a bad apple.” Albert gave him a deprecating glance. “Do you know, when I heard he was at Hoare’s, I took my account to Seale’s.

I had a terrible time keeping the characters straight in this story. I kept forgetting which was the private detective and which was the magician, which was the sportsman and which wasn’t interested in sports, and which played the field and which wanted a relationship only with the other. I kept having to repeat to myself, Julian is the detective, Ned is the magician, but that didn’t help with the relationship bits.

“I found nothing whatsoever wrong. In my professional opinion, he was making the whole business up.”

“A nervous fancy?”

“More deliberate than that, I’d say. More that all the best families have curses, and he intended to pay for the chance to say that his family had one, too.”

I was also confusing because both Ned and Julian used magic at various times, but only Ned studied it.

This didn’t make it a bad story, but it did keep throwing me out as I had to stop and figure out which character we were following at the moment.

I did particularly like Ned’s secretary / assistant, Miss Frost.

“And the reason you don’t know it is that it’s originally based on a charm for unraveling knitting, which is not the kind of thing that reviewers for serious metaphysical journals can read with a straight face.”

I may have seen that line coming, but I wouldn’t mind reading about Miss Frost going off on her own to become a metaphysical detective.

I already have the second book in this series, and I’ll probably read it, but I’m not currently going to go out of my way to look for other stories.

Characters: Mr Edward Mathey, Mr Julian Lynes, Miss Cordelia Frost, Mr Edgar Nevett, Mr Victor Nevett, Mrs Digby, Albert Wynchcombe, Mr Bailey, James Strachan, Inspector Charles Hatton, Reverend Clement Wilfrid Ellis, Mr and Mrs Boies, Larkin, Sarah, Jane Pugh, Mrs Rule, Margaret Jones, Mrs Victor Nevett, Challice, Mick Murtaugh, Joe Makins, Mrs Annie Makins, Constable Gregg, Mrs Landry, Cora Prince

Publisher: Queen of Swords Press

Rating: 6/10

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