Read Recently -- September -- Worth more than the asking price
Ha'Penny by Jo Walton
Sequel to Farthing. It is a few months after the Thirkie Murder at Farthing, and actor Lauria Gilmore has just died, her home having been consumed by an unexplained explosion. This causes trouble for two people, Viola Lark (nee Larkin), who was just cast in Hamlet, Princess of Denmark as the title role, with Lauria slated to play Gertrude (of course, everyone involved in the production is troubled by the news, but Viola is our narrator in the chapters pertaining to herself). Detective Inspector Carmichael of Scotland Yard gets to investigate and soon finds himself with an odd mystery on his hands: it seems that Ms. Gilmore was herself making the bomb that blew her up. Why? And who was the man found dead with her?
Despite its unpleasant subject (a parallel England sliding slowly towards Fascim [despite the back-cover blurb, it isn't there just yet]), this book is an easy read (I read the first hundred pages on the bus to work, and the second on the way home and finished it off at home that night), and the main reason for that is Walton's smooth prose. Alternate chapters are told by Viola (in first person) and Carmichael (in 3rd), which ensures that the two voices are always distinct and clear. This time the mystery is more of the "you find out before the detective does and get to watch him catch up" mode, but that's okay because this isn't, really, a mystery novel when you get right down to it.
Can't say I enjoyed it, and I can't say I'm looking forward to the sequel, but . . . I can't wait for the sequel, and I will read this one again.
Highly recommended.