This is another entry to the Drood series by Simon R. Greene and it is just as good as the others. I feel like I benefited by not reading them all in a row however, as they can be formulaic.

Eddie Drood is returning to the Famous Drood Manor after defeating the menace from the last book, together with his lady love Molly Metcalfe he is in high spirits. Until he rounds the corner and sees the total destruction of Drood Hall and, presumably, his entire family (Not really a spoiler, it happens like on the first couple of pages. And it's also on the back cover).

The rest of the book is as you are probably imagining it. Eddie and Molly travel around getting information, i.e- punching people, until the mystery is solved. As I said at the start of the review, if I had read the series one after another it could've been very same-y. I tend to group these books with others of it ilk like The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, The Felix Castor series by Mike Carey, and The Peter Grant Series by Ben Aaronovitch. Sure they are pretty different in location and sometimes tone, and the lead characters are mostly different from each other, but they do tend to follow a similar structure. There is a mystery that needs solving, people to beat up and get information from, and usually an interesting twist to the end. I personally can't get enough of any of these series, by your mileage may vary on how much you can stomach.

I always have a fun time reading these books though. I feel that both Eddie and Molly are fleshed out well and act like real people most of the time. Molly has a tendency to grate on my nerves a bit here and there but as you read you can tell they love each other and fit well together and why. Nothing feels fake or unearned although they tend to repeat the same phrases a lot which can get annoying over time (another reason I'm glad I read these books spaced out a bit).

This book is another solid entry into the series and I am pretty intrigued about the newest books. ( )