A corrupt countess
A spy in danger
And an assassin at large
The fifth title in Genevieve Cogman’s witty and wonderful Invisible Library series, The Mortal Word is a rollicking literary adventure.
Peace talks are always tricky, especially when a key diplomat gets stabbed. This rudely interrupts a top-secret summit between the warring dragons and Fae. As a neutral party, Librarian-spy Irene is summoned to investigate. She must head to a version of 1890s Paris, with her assistant Kai and her detective friend Vale, where these talks are fracturing. Here, she must get to the bottom of the attack – before either the peace negotiations or the city go up in flames.
Suspicions fly thick and fast and Irene soon finds herself in the seedy depths of the Parisian underworld. She’s on the trail of a notoriously warlike Fae, the Blood Countess. However, the evidence against the Countess is circumstantial. Could the killer be a member of the Library itself?
The Invisible Library series is one of the most imaginative series in existence at the moment – especially for those of us who are absolute book addicts- it’s a heady mix of Literary adventures, magic, multiple worlds and books that hold the universe together. There’s dragon’s too. Just saying. Oh and Fae, must not forget them. Well unless they want you to of course…
Irene is a librarian, a spy, a kind of thief if you like and quite often saves the world(s)…
Over the course of the novels Genevieve Cogman has built a beautifully complex and hugely addictive mythology, the library and its power, the multiple worlds Irene visits, there is a vivid brilliance to all of it that just immerses you into the stories.
The Mortal Word finds Irene on the hunt for a killer, one determined to destroy the already tenuous peace negotiations between Dragon and Fae. With political machinations, multiple possibilities, Fae chaos and Dragon anger, she’s got her work cut out for her. With magic and mayhem afoot, she and her cohorts, Vale (Sherlock Holmes pretty much) and love interest Kai (who just happens to be a dragon) must face down all the odds.
Once again this was an amazing read, intelligent, multi layered, adventurous and an absolute page turner. You just never know what’s coming next, from possessed felines to poisonous apples – it is wonderfully unpredictable, you just get hypnotised by it all from first page to last.
Loved it again. Every story opens up the possibility for more and I can’t imagine ever getting bored with Irene’s world – let’s hope she has many more adventures ahead.
Highly Recommended. Read them all.
You can purchase The Mortal Word (Pan Macmillan) Here.
Happy Reading!
