I've been enjoying the Verity Kent series, which blend classic whodunit with post-WWI spy thriller, up to this point, but this sixth instalment was a bit of a drag for me, compared to the first five books. There are a lot of characters to keep track of (and three or four specifically that I had such a hard time keeping separated in my mind), a lot of information from earlier books to be retained, and yet somehow too much exposition. That sounds like a contradiction, but I could've used more (subtle!) reminders of who was who and what was what from the first books, and fewer paragraphs explaining the relevant pieces of history to me, information that too often felt pasted in from an encyclopedia, rather than integrated into Verity's own voice and perspective.

For a book with so many action sequences, it was just a little boring at times. I still enjoy the historical setting, and Verity & Sidney's interpersonal drama as they struggle to open up to one another about the trauma they each went through during the war, though there's considerably less of that in this than in earlier books. But this slightly too-complicated story didn't hold my interest quite as much as I wanted it to. (Maybe I secretly just want more Max and/or Alec Xavier, sorry Sidney.) I'll still happily anticipate the next book, but I hope it picks back up a bit - and I hope we finally make some progress on the overarching Ardmore plot.

Thank you to Kensington Books for the advance review copy!