2021 fantasy romance, third and last of its series. Abigail Wilder,
adopted daughter of the Lord Sorcier, is determined to get to the
bottom of the deaths of eligible young ladies in London.
Most of what's going on here is an investigative story—but among
the tools available to the investigators, as well as interviewing
relatives and searching bedrooms, are a variety of magics, and the
mystery itself is bound up in magic too.
Abigail soon comes into contact with Mercy, apparently a gutter rat,
who's investigating on her own account; but what I found very
significant is that Abigail's parents, powerful in their own right,
are present and helpful but don't simply solve the thing themselves.
It's a cliché of fiction for sub-adults that parents have to be got
out of the way somehow, and Atwater has come up with ways to keep them
in play but not overpoweringly so.
There are also several ghosts, variously visible, and an instance of
being Mostly Dead; and overall I found myself very engaged. This is
not a world that promises happy endings to everyone.
It's all rather fine, as well as a pleasing close to the series.