I like the characters and premise, but the pacing seemed to drag in places in The Raven Thief. There’s a lot of contemplation and conversation in between occasional bits of action. The main murder is of the “it had to be someone in this room” variety but everyone had an alibi (or do they?) and there’s four impossibilities that Tempest and her sidekick Sanjay (Kumiko calls him this at one point, and he’s slightly offended) need to figure out. Both of them are/were magic performer professionals, and it annoys Tempest at points throughout the novel why she can’t figure out the trick(s) behind the impossible elements of the death of formerly famous novelist Corbin Colt during a séance performance to exorcise his presence from his soon-to-be-ex-wife’s (Lavinia’s) newly renovated in the style of classic mysteries home. Lavinia’s murder mystery book club, Lavinia’s mother Kumiko, Tempest, Sanjay, and Tempest’s grandfather Ash are the participants/suspects.
The investigation ends up revealing a handful of secrets, including a big one connected to the Raj family curse and the disappearance of Tempest’s mother. While it’s true that a lot of mystery series have some kind of long running mystery that the main character has to deal with throughout the series, it does not seem to be going on the backburner the way you might expect in the second mystery of the series. The presence of Moriarty seems a little unnecessary as of now mostly because there’s not enough info or reason for him to be getting involved the ways he is, and if you don’t remember who he was from the first book (it’s been a while) then he makes even less sense except in a vague sort of way. I kind of think I remember him, but even then, it seems like mostly unnecessary obvious tension that has little purpose.
The heist attempt, occasional gathering of various suspects to try and work out who really done it (there’s more than one attempt to accuse someone rightly and wrongly of various wrong doings connected to the murder), and (temporary) escape from custody all in service of working out the murder are all interesting bits, but there’s too much going in circles (accuse the obvious person, but surprise they had a secret no one could have previously known that means they couldn’t have done the thing) in terms of more than one crime or wrong doing. The (mostly related) questionable doings include the murder, the typewriter, a breaking and entering or few, the escape (?) from custody, and several instances of lying or not being wholly truthful. And maybe Tempest’s agent should get that call back he seems to be after, but that part is put in the background.
Overall, it’s a decent story and I do like the characters (and a few of Ash’s recipes which are included), but the pacing and maybe overuse of the “I think I’ve solved it! … Or not” moments just drag the whole thing down a little. I’m still going after book 3 but I’m hoping for maybe a little more attention to plotting.
