Comeuppance Served Cold

by Marion Deeds

Marion Deeds's Comeuppance Served Cold is a hard-boiled historical fantasy of criminality and magic, couched in the glamour of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries.

"[A] beautifully constructed magical heist in turn-of-the-century Seattle."-Mary Robinette Kowal

Seattle, 1929-a bitterly divided city overflowing with wealth, violence, and magic.

A respected magus and city leader intent on criminalizing Seattle's most vulnerable magickers hires a young woman as a lady's companion to curb his rebellious daughter's outrageous behavior.

The widowed owner of a speakeasy encounters an opportunity to make her husband's murderer pay while she tries to keep her shapeshifter brother safe.

A notorious thief slips into the city to complete a delicate and dangerous job that will leave chaos in its wake.

One thing is for certain-comeuppance, eventually, waits for everyone.

• ISBN10: 1250811074
• ISBN13: 9781250811073
• Publish Date: 22 March 2022
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 1 March 2024
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: St Martin's Press
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 192
• Language: English

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

Comeuppance Served Cold is an engaging and well written historical fantasy/mystery by Marion Deeds. Released 22nd March 2022 by Macmillan on their Tor imprint, it's 192 pages and is available in paperback and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

I found myself swept up in the story from the first page. There are three different intertwined plots which revolve around one another and culminate in a satisfying climax and denouement. An alternate 1929 Seattle where magic works and a powerful (but essentially toxically privileged, racist, misogynistic) bureaucrat is working to control and ultimately destroy vulnerable magic users in the city.

It's a short novella and the author does a superb job with world-building given the rigid length constraints of the form. She does a lot without a lot of extra wordage. The language is rough; there are instances of racism, brutality, sexism, and attempted assault. It's never used egregiously, but it is present, and sometimes difficult to see.

Four stars. Definitely a worthwhile and engaging read. The author is adept and talented. I would love to see more stories in this world.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes

[Quirky Cat]

First things first, I adore the title of this book: Comeuppance Served Cold. It's fun, quirky, and a little bit evocative. It's perfect for a historical thriller, at least in my mind. Written by Marion Deeds, this book immediately caught my attention.

The year is 1929, and both magic and violence are tearing the city apart. This is a city full of the desperate, the determined, and the hypocritical. On one side, we have a city leader trying to outlaw macikers – but more than willing to use them to make his life easier.

On the other side of town is a speakeasy run by a widow who might have just found her opportunity at revenge. Then there's the thief, finding all the perfect little hidey holes and secrets of the town. Not to mention their prized possessions.

There are times when I get so excited about a book that I go into it with unfair expectations. That may have been the case here with Comeuppance Served Cold. While I didn't hate the book (thank goodness!), I did not fall over heels for it like I had hoped, assumed, and anticipated.

Comeuppance Served Cold is told in a non-linear format, which will put some readers off. Personally, I generally enjoy non-linear formats, so this wasn't the issue for me. The biggest problem here is that every transition seemed to halt the pacing, so things didn't read as smoothly as they should have.

On the bright side, the characters are an absolute delight. They were by far my favorite parts of this entire story, including the world they are based in. Marion Deeds excels at character writing and development. If the storytelling format had been focused a bit more on the characters, the whole thing would have been a much bigger success. But maybe that is simply my bias talking. Either way, I didn't regret reading Comeuppance Served Cold, though I wish it had stolen my heart as I had hoped.

Thanks to Tor.com and #NetGalley for making this book available for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Read more reviews over at Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks