Marion Lane and the Raven’s Revenge

Willberg’s overstuffed third fantasy-adventure featuring 25-year-old apprentice detective Marion Lane (after 2022’s Marion Lane and the Deadly Rose) suffers from a lack of focus. In 1960 London, Marion is nearly ready to graduate from bookseller-turned-detective Miss Brickett’s Investigation and Inquiries bureau, the headquarters of which rests, Bond-like, beneath the city streets, complete with a gadgetry department. When a dead raven is mysteriously delivered to the bureau, Marion believes it is a message meant for her; her mother, Alice, received a similar warning before her death a decade earlier. Meanwhile, local businessman and philanthropist Oscar Biggar is strangled in a crowded public square, an event that leaves the police baffled. Marion believes Biggar’s death confirms the return of the raven-obsessed killer who murdered her mother and sets out to investigate, opening old wounds as she circles in on a criminal who might be closer to her than she thinks. Willberg packs in plenty of action, but manages little tension, slowed as the novel is by momentum-stalling backstory. Series fans may enjoy reuniting with the characters and reveling in some outlandish gadgetry, but newbies need not apply. Agent: Hayley Steed, Madeleine Millburn Literary. (June)