The Carnelian Crow

Book Title: The Carnelian Crow

Author: Colleen Gleason

Series: Stoker & Holmes #4

Date Started: July 30th 2018

Date Completed: July 31st 2018

Genres: Adventure, Romance, Historial, Mystery, Fantasy

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Stars

Final Rating: Four stars

Review:

Oh, these books are fun. Every time I race through them and want the next one immediately. Yeah, they're silly and border on absurdity, but I enjoy every second reading them and I appreciate an action and puzzle-solving mystery with female heroines.

Honestly, I ended up skimming the text a bit. Luckily, it's the kind of book where you can miss the odd sentence and still understand what's going on - a lot of internal monologue that has varying degrees of interest. I'm not ultimately here for the inner musings of Mina and Evaline; they tend to be a bit simple and shallow in the grand scheme of things. Their mystery-solving, puzzle skills and action, however, is definitely what's kept me coming back. The interactions between characters, too, but I'll get onto that. But it's satisfying to watch these girls go through deliciously gothic murder mysteries and grand robberies when I'm so used to watching boys in those roles. I don't really care how feasible it is, that's not the point to me.

That being said, I feel like The Carnelian Crow finally shows things starting to fall together and gain proper rhythm. Each novel stands very much on its own as well as holding little details that have clearly been building up to the final chapter, but this was the first time I felt like I could see people's paths intersecting and pointing in the same direction. I'm not sure whether the fifth book in the Stoker and Holmes series is the final one, but we're defintely coming near to the end.

One thing that did bug me a little bit about The Carnelian Crow (there's always one thing that gets me each time) was the way it addressed marriage. Now, I'm ambivalent because I appreciate it being explored in the first place, but I think the way everyone outside of the situation was demonised is slightly counter-intuitive. We get a situation where Evaline is in the predicament of having to marry in order to keep her family finacially secure, and only she feels reluctant to do it. Yes, it was the societal expectation, but you're telling me that not even the other women vaguely understand the pressure? Or, at least, they would notice that she's uncomfortable and reason with her, rather than just acting confused at her hesitation. The only person that vaguely responds understandably is Mina (predictably, because they're the most developed) - and I did like that. She's slightly cold about it, but she gets into an argument about it with Grayling who just can't understand. That bit was great. But having everyone other than the main characters react thoughtlessly just doesn't make sense and taints the argument.

With a warning of mild spoilers (not really it was obvious), the best part of this book is the fact that Mina and Grayling finally get together. It's taken bloody long enough. Dylan, with the greatest affection, is an unnecessary distraction who's purpose I still don't entirely understand in both the characterisation and narrative of our heroines. What we really wanted was for young-detective heroine Mina and the polite-but-respectful Inspector to speak their minds about more than their suspects. (If you want the way to my heart, give me a love interest that values and encourages the intgellience and curiosity of the heroine.)

The only reason I didn't read The Carnelian Crow sooner was because how expensive it was on kindle (£9 on kindle?! Come on!), but after reading Ash and Quill I wanted more fun and caved in. Do I regret it? No. Did I wish it was less expensive, oh yeah. Would I pay the same to get the next book right now? You bet I would.