3.5 rounded up. ( )

It has promise. I found the plot a bit light. Lots of emphasis on the eccentricities of organization and emotions of the main character (Marion). ( )

Meh. Brilliant idea but mediocre execution. I wanted to like it, and the really cool premise of the underground detective agency kept me reading when it felt like a slog, but unfortunately, the characters, while all likeable, failed to click with each other; there was no spark.

In better hands this would have been an amazingly fun book and start of a great series. I don’t regret reading it, but I don’t regret getting from the library either. There’s at least one more, but I can’t say I’m at all curious about it. ( )

Marion Lane's dreary life changes forever when an old family friend extends a mysterious invitation. What appears to be a run-of-the-mill clerk's job at a dusty used bookstore is, instead, an apprenticeship into London's most successful (and most mysterious) private detective agency. Miss Brickett's Investigations & Inquiries is literally an underground operation, located in subterranean tunnels. They have engineers who are creating the most advanced technology in spycraft, and a series of letterboxes around the city where concerned citizens can drop off hints and requests. When a filing assistant is murdered one night, it's clearly an inside job -- and it may be up to Marion to figure out who the perpetrator is, in order to avoid a serious miscarriage of justice.

I picked this one up from the library shelves without knowing much about it, and was pleasantly surprised. It's not exactly fantasy (though the tech isn't fully explained, and some of it borders on the magical), but it has that fantasy feel of a person swept up from the humdrum into another, more exciting world that they didn't know existed. I think dedicated mystery readers might find the mystery part of the plot a little weak, but the book makes up for it with the details of setting and character. I look forward to future volumes in the series. ( )