So the year is almost over, and I’m pretty much done with anything I might read in 2020. Tomorrow, my end-of-year book post will go up, and I wanted to have everything reviewed beforehand. Thankfully, the last two books I read this year don’t need larger reviews!

The Vanishing Box by Elly Griffiths (audio)

(Book 4 of the series) Life goes on for the Magic Men and their circle of friends and family. In this book, someone is killing people and staging their bodies to look like scenes from history, just as a controversial tableau act (semi-nude women also staged to enact historical scenes) comes to town. There’s a lot of exploration of relationships both old and new, and their evolution over time. It was quite a fun mystery, though honestly less intriguing than the third book in the series, which is my favorite so far.

Note: I was originally going to combine reviews for this book and the fifth in the series (last, as of right now at least), but the fifth book takes place then years later. Everyone’s lives are completely changed, in many ways not for the better, and I promptly lost interest not far in. Maybe I’ll come back to it one day, but I never did find this series as compelling as Griffith’s other books, so maybe not.

The Girl in the Mirror by Rose Carlyle

Identical-twin thriller. That says pretty much all you need to know. Spoilers from here on out, though, if you want to know a bit more.

A petty rich man with too many ex-wives and children becomes obsessed with the idea of leaving his legacy to a single heir, thus embroiling a family in a race toward pregnancy-for-money. Summer and Iris are twins, the oldest of the multitudes of children, and thus first in line for legitimate marriage and babies per the terms of their masochistic father’s will. The two end up sailing their father’s yacht together across the Indian ocean, and Summer goes overboard. When Iris finally meets land, she falls into Summer’s life: wealthy wife, doting stepmother, and newly pregnant with the heir to the fortune. Except Iris isn’t pregnant, of course, but that won’t stop her from doing her best to rectify the situation. You can guess what follows: Iris stumbling around impersonating her twin sister, obvious hints that Iris is clearly clueless about what’s really happening, several “twists” that are visible from the beginning of the book…etc. It was a relatively fun book to read for the first 2/3rds, until Iris’ personality changed completely and everything became really contrived. But honestly, it was about what I expected. Meh.

*****
So there you go. The last of my books of 2020. Feels kinda sad to leave on a negative note like that, but I don’t want to try to shove another book in last minute to change that. Oh well. My Year in Books to follow tomorrow!