Book Review: The Cabinets of Barnaby Mayne by Elsa Hart

Last year, I read and then did a book review of my first Elsa Hart book.

Recently, I read my second book from her, having been quite impressed with the first one. Of course, there are similarities in the writing style, and even the stories. Both of them are murder mysteries which take place in the early 1700's, so there are bound to be similarities.

And yet, they each had a distinct feel to them. The setting for the one which I read last year was in Western China. And I really got a feeling almost of visiting China during that era, based on Hart's descriptions and writing style. Most of the events take place in a regional Chinese provincial court, which is hosting a major event. There are people from around the world set to attend. All of that made it very enjoyable to me.

By contrast, the setting in this book is London. The main setting in this book is the home of a wealthy collector of rare, mostly scientific artifacts by the name of Barnaby Maybe. although the characters do move around outside of the house. His collection is known to be second to none, and so many people from all over Europe show up when he is scheduled to give a tour of his collection.

Like with the first book that I read from here, Jade Dragon Mountain, Hart is able to bring the past to us and make it feel alive. Instead of rural western China, we are in London, when it still had a reputation as a dirty and foul-smelling city, as well as a dangerous one. And we also get the feeling that some within the intellectual community not only pride themselves on their knowledge and collections, but also inspire to a greater understanding of the world and how it works in an era still far more in the shadows of past superstitions than we tend to be in our modern world. 

Then, of course, there is a murder. And the mystery of the "who dunnit?" commences.

Now, I will not go into too much detail regarding the specifics of either the murder, or how Cecily Kay, the main character throughout this novel, ultimately manages to figure out who committed the murder, and why. 

However, I can say that this was a solid and enjoyable read. My second Elsa Hart book, but I intend to read other works by her in the future, and hopefully soon. Like with Jade Dragon Mountain, I really came to enjoy inhabiting her fictional world while reading this book. It took me away from my own life and own problems, at least for the short durations while reading this book.

Highly recommended. 

Side note: I realized when writing this that I had never quite gotten around to reviewing Jade Dragon Mountain. It came as a surprise, because up to this point, I had believed that there was a book review. But after reading it, I had wanted to get it for my mom as a Christmas gift, and wanted to wait until after that time to review the book. Glad that I did, because my mom had not yet read anything by Elsa Hart when I gave her the collection of three books by her. Unfortunately, though, I never did quite get around to actually writing, much less publishing, a book review of that fantastic book. This is something I intend to remedy soon, although at this point, it will simply have to wait until after the California trip.