Review: The Devil in Oxford

The Devil in Oxford by Jess Armstrong
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Ruby Vaughn travels from Exeter to Oxford to spend Christmas with her friend Leona and also accompany her (Ruby's) boss/companion the octogenarian Mr Owen aka the Viscount of Harwick to various of antiquarian society dinners and talks.

Ruby and Mr Owen arrive slap bang in the middle of a ding-dong between two Oxford scholars, the disgraced Julius Harker who now runs a curiosity museum and the illustrious lecturer on anthropology Frederick Reaver - apparently they were supposed to have a debate several days ago in public but Harker failed to show up. Now crowds have gathered for Harker's unveiling of his Napoleonic cache of Egyptian treasures. But the missing man makes an appearance in the most shocking way possible, his dead body stuffed inside a sarcophagus with his tongue cut out. When Harker's mild mannered business partner Herr Mueller is arrested for his murder Leona begs Ruby to investigate the case and prove Mueller innocent, but there seem to be multiple factors at work.

I didn't realise that this was the third book in a series when I requested the ARC and I have to say I found it difficult to keep track of all the different threads. As I said in my review of a very different book, there are too many overreaching arcs in this book: the romance with the witch Ruan; the women pretending to be Ruby's mother (who died when the Ruritania sank, along with Ruby's father and sister); the mystery about Ruby's 'powers'; her WW1 trauma which may or may not have caused a nervous breakdown, etc, etc.

Also, there were so many suspects for Harker's murder and in the end when the culprit is revealed I didn't feel that there was any evidence (other than the villain's convenient mea culpa) to suggest it was that person over any of the others. There were lots of hints at the supernatural but when it came down to it all the explanations were pretty prosaic.

Pleasant enough but not really what I was hoping for.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

View all my reviews