Review: Death at the Dionysus Club by Melissa Scott and Amy Griswold

Title: Death at the Dionysus Club

Series: Lynes & Mathey: Book Two

Authors: Melissa Scott and Amy Griswold

Length: 359 Pages

Category: Murder Mystery, Gaslamp Fantasy

Rating: 4 Stars

At a Glance: There were moments in this book where I imagined the authors could have been inspired by Lewis Carroll. There are some “down the rabbit hole” moments as well as riddles for which there are no sane answers. It’s superbly imaginative as well as meticulously paced.

Reviewed By: Lisa

Blurb: Secrets, Magic and Murder…

Julian Lynes and Ned Mathey are back and this time, the stakes are everything they hold dear. A murderer is finding their victims in the London gentlemen’s clubs where gay men find refuge and each other.

Julian and Ned’s friends, their former lovers, their antagonists, are all under threat from both the murderer and the terrible risk of exposure. Mathey has started working as a metaphysician for Scotland Yard and being outed could destroy the life that he’s building for himself. Even his relationship with Julian.

How high a price are they willing to pay to stop a killer?

Review: Melissa Scott and Amy Griswold deliver their intrepid heroes to a new place in their relationship in this second installment of the Lynes & Mathey mystery series. This, in itself, is an act of unbridled courage, given the time these novels are set. Moreover, Julian Lynes is not a man of softer emotion. His parameters in the relationship are rooted in the physical rather than the sentimental, which means the necessary catalyst to nudge him along introduces the very real risk of losing Ned to a formidable threat stalking the city.

This is a mystery series rather than a strictly romantic one, and it’s superbly imaginative as well as meticulously paced. The staid atmosphere coupled with the cases Ned and Julian become embroiled in, which eventually intertwine so they end up working together, are cerebral. It’s not often that these two men allow emotion to cloud their judgment, but they’re also human. Discretion may be the better part of valor in some cases, but for Ned and Justin, it’s confession that shows their true courage in Death at the Dionysus Club. When it comes down to a question of their safety or personal principles, their integrity wins.

There were moments in this book where I imagined the authors could have been inspired by Lewis Carroll. There are some “down the rabbit hole” moments as well as riddles for which there are no sane answers. It doesn’t quite ask why a raven is like a writing desk, but there is an immense sense of “My dear, here we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place. And if you wish to go anywhere you must run twice as fast as that.” Keeping a step ahead of the antagonist while not dying in the process sometimes feels like believing six impossible things before breakfast.

This book was originally published in 2014 and the series has not been added to since. What I hope this means is that the authors are preparing to add a third installment soon. It’s long past time for Ned and Julian to face and solve more metaphysical crimes in this alternate Victorian London.

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