Mystery of the Spirits Snow and Winter # 5
Gay Romance, Mystery Suspense
Emporium Press
Dec 30, 2021
kindle
Amazon
Review by Ulysses Dietz
Member of The Paranormal Guild Review Team
Is this the last of the series? From what the author says in her note at the beginning, this book is a bonus. It surely felt like that to me.
Of course, the mystery itself is, aligned with the first four mysteries, interesting and creepy, drawing on the arcana of American material culture. An extremely rare bit of hardware from the world of 19th-century spiritualism in the USA appears at a murder site. Sebastian Snow, a year-and-a-half into his happy, danger-free life as the husband of Calvin Winter, finds himself sought out by Calvin’s boss, who clearly resents the fact that he needs to ask for help from this quarter.
From this point on, even though the story unspools in the expected C.S. Poe way—well written, quietly gripping, surprising denouement—the story really isn’t entirely about the murder. It’s more about Sebastian’s relationship with Calvin, and a subtle new self-confidence that seems to have imbued Sebastian with a quiet kind of maturity rooted in his personal happiness.
No longer is Sebastian the impulsive and snarky amateur sleuth: he’s a professional, doing a job he was hired to do, in spite of roadblocks set up by the police officers irked by their reliance on his intelligence and knowledge. That includes Calvin, by the way, but the one time they really lock horns in this book is quite different than episodes in earlier books. Their relationship is different now, and it shows in the way this conflict is resolved. Oh, Sebastian is still snarky and a smart-mouth, while Calvin is still overprotective and fretful. But it’s different. They’re partners. They know each other.
There is a quietness throughout this plot arc that I really appreciated. This feels like a happy ever after.
A side note: parts of this book edge weirdly close to my own world, as a lifelong museum curator specializing in historic houses and the decorative arts of the 19th century. New York City was (is) always my haunt, and the world of auctions and antique shows in New York was where I and my colleagues met and talked and learned from each other over nearly four decades. I never particularly focused on the more esoteric aspects of material culture on which Poe bases her stories; but I own every single book ever written on Tiffany & Co. and have spent more of my life than I should admit pondering the significance of silver flatware and its manufacturers. As a further side note: Between 1895 and 1985, Tiffany & Co. manufactured all their silver in a great Victorian factory in Newark, New Jersey, ten miles from Manhattan, where my career as a curator took place. Tiffany kept the location of their factory carefully veiled, so as not to tarnish (ahem) the glitter of their Fifth Avenue flagship store in New York.
LGBT/ROMANCE/SUSPENSE/MYSTERY
LGBT/ROMANCE/SUSPENSE/MYSTERY – SERIES
