From School Library Journal
Grade 8 Up—In this third magical mystery involving two letter-writing cousins, the women's quiet lives of domesticity are interrupted when the Duke of Wellington asks Cecelia's husband to look into the disappearance of a German magician in the north of England. Cecelia and James hurry to investigate, leaving Kate and her husband to care for their six children. The story is told in the form of the correspondence between the wives as well as the husbands, until the mystery is solved. Readers may be slightly disappointed to find that Cecelia and, especially, Kate are not quite as intrepid as they were in their previous adventures, leaving much of the investigative work to other characters, and at times merely reporting events rather than instigating them. Yet some of the sparkle remains, and fans of the first two books will certainly enjoy revisiting these delightful characters. Suggest this Harry-Potter-meets-Jane-Austen series to romantic-fantasy readers, but strongly encourage them to read the earlier ones first.—
Jennifer Stubben, Barrington Area Library, IL Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Set in an alternate England in which wizardry exists, this sequel to
Sorcery and Cecelia(2003) and
The Grand Tour (2004) takes place in 1828. After placing their children in the care of cousin Kate, Cecy and her husband investigate the disappearance of a railway surveyor-magician and the strange properties of ley lines--powerful, invisible channels of magical energy. The story unfolds through the characters' letters, in which the formal locution of the period is leavened by the wit and chattiness of good friends sharing revelations and confidences.
Carolyn PhelanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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