The Masquerades of Spring

Obviously having read my review of “Stone and Sky”Ben has taken a note of my complaint about the overloading of characters and backstory in that novel and produced something much more tightly focused in this novella.

Our only familiar character here is Nightingale, and we go back in time to 1930s New York and the height of the jazz era. We also meet a contemporary of Thomas, who also studied at Casterbrook and is nicely realised by the narrator. There is a low stakes story of enchanted musical instruments and a fun range of recognisable character tropes as our two protagonists try to trace these instruments to their source.

In some ways this was a bit of a self-indulgence by the author to stretch his range and bring to life a foppish and gay minor British aristocrat marooned in New York, and indeed this character was brilliantly realised by the narrator of the audiobook version.

Overall, this was an enjoyable little tale, not adding much to the canon (which is already top heavy according to my previous reviews!) And I did like the call-out to Molly and others of her kind that provided a nice link back to the original Books.

Harmless fun booked worth a read (or, even better a listen).