In this third volume of the Magic Men series, Edgar Stevens and Max Mephisto are called in by the military to investigate the suspicious death of their former commander. Only no one is who they appear to be, everyone has a past skeleton they’re trying to keep buried, and politics become a tricky business as the new Queen of England is crowned.

So it took awhile, but by this third book, I finally became invested in the narrators of this story. The key to really good mystery/crime series for me is that the detectives and their associates offer good stories of their own, and I’ve found that a bit lacking in the previous volumes. Now, not only did I not want to stop listening, but I immediately downloaded the next volume to dive into. The mystery itself was captivating as well, and like the previous two, the audio narrator, James Langton, did a great job. I really can’t say much more than that – it’s difficult to review later volumes in a series without discussing anything that might give away previous books’ plot points! In any case, it took some time but I finally feel the investment in this series has been worth it. Hopefully that remains the same with the next two books!