SPFBO Champions: Murder at Spindle Manor by Morgan Stang

Welcome to the SPFBO Champions’ League! As you know, this is a special edition where we try to find out who will be the ultimate Champion among the last 10 SPFBO winners. Check out our SPFBO Chamopions’ League page for more info! SPFBO Champions’ League ends on December 20th, and we’ll post our reviews every 3 weeks or so.

Our 1st SPFBO Champion review is for Murder at Spindle Manor by Morgan Stang, the winner of SPFBO 9. The reviews within a post will be in alphabetical order.

A quick reminder about how we are proceeding in this edition: our judges had the freedom to opt out of reading any of the books due to personal interest, time restrictions, unforeseen life events, etc. Our aim is to have at least 4 reviews/scores for each Champion.

Once again, we’ll have a DNF rule in place: if a judge reads a book (if they didn’t opt out beforehand), they have to read at least 25% of it, although encouraged to read at least 50% since we are talking about champions. At whichever point they DNF, they’ll have to write a review and put a score in our spreadsheet.

As per the new rules for the SPFBO Champions’ Editidon, there aren’t going to be any public scores, but we’ll have them to help us decide the ranking. However, they won’t be shared anywhere. We will also have a mixed set of old and new reviews, meaning that if any of us reviewed a book before, we can reuse that review. Therefore, we’ll mark our reviews at the beginning as old or new.

For Murder at Spindle Manor, we have 5 reviews for your reading pleasure.

So, without further ado, let’s take a closer look at our 1st Champion!

Table of Contents

• About the Book
• Book Blurb
• Reviews
  • Arina
  • Filip
  • Rari
  • Timy
  • Tru

Mysteries abound in Spindle Manor.

For Huntress Isabeau Agarwal, the countryside inn is the last stop in a deadly hunt. Armed with gaslamp and guns, she tracks an insidious beast that wears the skin of its victims, mimicking them perfectly. Ten guests reside within Spindle Manor tonight, and the creature could be any one of them. Confined by a torrential thunderstorm and running out of time, Isabeau has until morning to discover the liar, or none of them—including her—will make it out alive.

But her inhuman quarry isn’t the only threat residing in Spindle Manor.

Gunshots.

A slammed door.

A dead body.

Someone has been killed, and a hunt turns into a murder investigation. Now with two mysteries at her feet and more piling up, Isabeau must navigate a night filled with lies and deception. In a world of seances and specters, mesmers and monsters, the unexpected is hiding around every corner, and every move may be her last.

Arina

Read: 100%
Review: new

I had just put down Agatha Christie‘s The Murder at the Vicarage when I picked up Murder at Spindle Manor, so the genre conventions were instantly noticeable.

Both are murder mysteries set in particularly small spaces and both introduce a wildly diverse (and entirely suspicious) set of characters to be dissected by a particularly talkative investigator. And both are so very fun to read in very different ways.

While Christie’s detective novels take themselves a bit more seriously (or perhaps, have a more subtle, veiled, sombre humor), Murder at Spindle Manor is much more playful (and often ridiculous, in its charismatic way), setting itself apart by the times it made me laugh out loud.

In the classic flair of the detective mystery, the cast of characters hides many a secret and plenty of opportunity for misdirection and mayhem; a (true or fake?) disgraced medium, a former soldier with PTSD prone to fantabulous outbursts, a steam-powered-cyborg and her flimsy companion, a high-society socialite with a penchant for being a total bitch, a well-manered couple, an infamous mesmer, a dark and brooding totally-not-Tommy-Shelby businessman, a jaunty coachwoman, and a gun-toting investigator working for a mystical group of deities.

All these personalities clash in a whodunit, as Huntress Isabeau Agarwal, aided by a self-imposed partner, must untangle this odd group to figure out who amongst them is the skin-changing beast she must kill until sunrise.

While I would have enjoyed a bit more development of the more sensitive parts, such as the intersections of disability and society’s notions of monstrosity, Murder at Spindle Manor is a fun fantasy-steampunk romp, a mix of The Witcher and Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes, with a touch of the comedic style found in many French movies.

I was easily impressed by Morgan’s talent in both character and world-building!

The only thing I found underwhelming was the story’s ending, which felt curt and rushed with a slight peppering of too-convenient resolutions. The final climax dragged a bit, with a lengthy explanation by the detective that revisited the same subject a couple of times, and what I initially thought was the focal enigma was overshadowed by a sudden mid-pace turnaround.

But on second thought, this is also one characteristic of the classic detective story, where the journey often upstages the destination, and the endgame is shortly chronicled in a couple of pages. For it is the very process of unravelling the characters and their secrets that matters most, and most entertains the reader.

Reading it like that, I’d say Murder at Spindle Manor achieves its genre expectations very well (if not its preamble’s) while also blending together elements that turn the classic story on its head; I was thoroughly entertained by its quirky (and odious. My god, how I hated Angelica!) cast of characters, each very distinguishable and fun to be with, and the plot mattered a little less when I was having fun.

Morgan Stang expertly succeeds at whetting one’s appetite for more of his The Lamplight Murder Mysteries series, which I will, murderously, gobble up.

Filip

Read: 100%
Review: new

Murder at Spindle Manor, the winner of SPFBO 9, and the first fantasy mystery novel to claim the feat. A worthy winner and a welcome fusion of these two storied genres, Morgan Stang‘s novel is a labour of love towards the detective story in particular. It shows as much in its choice of prose style, which recalled to me the early twentieth century writing of Agatha Christie and even the prose of Victorian mystery novels – thankfully, at just north of 250 pages, the verbosity of the latter is nowhere in sight. 

A shapeshifting monster, the Dopplevyrm, is on the loose, a Huntress on its heels, their showdown all but destined to play out within the eerie atmosphere of Spindle Manor. The ancient manor-house is an excellent milieu for the many revelations and reversals just over a dozen characters will witness as dastardly murders play out; the background, a dark and stormy night, certainly adds to the gothic atmosphere.

Spindle Manor doesn’t play the mystery element altogether straight but rather adds an excellent blend of humour to Huntress Isabeau Agarwal’s investigation. This is best exemplified in several ways: for one, the character of  Mr. Homes, a drunkard and carriage driver whose love for “the penny dreadfuls” makes him come up with contrived, largely useless theories that riff on Holmes’ methodology. Recurring jokes between Isabeau and Spindle Manor’s proprietress certainly added in colour, as did several others. The humour largely lands, though I was a bit peeved at times by the overuse of certain filler phrases by one character, Teddy, in particular. 

The setting of Lamplight is close enough to Victorian/Edwardian London that it’s really easy to feel at home in Stang’s secondary world. One easy to spot analogue to a familiar real-world institution, for example, is that of Waxwick Yard, a very clear play on Scotland Yard. Where the world differs, the influence is equal parts traditional gothic – spirits, ghouls, vampires – and modern fantasy, with its inscrutable non-human Nobles, its various gaslight and clockwork elements, and plenty more besides. 

As for the characters themselves, I found the interplay between them entertaining and well-executed. The back and forth between Isabeau and her self-styled partner Evie added a hint of my favourite buddy-cop vibe (pretty sure that’s a technical term). A complex, co-dependent and almost entirely helpful relationship connects Isabeau and Evie’s ten fellow travellers: a big slice of the fun of the novel comes from seeing Isabeau untangle it. 

Like some of the finest mysteries, the answer to the ones that haunt Spindle Manor is there in the text. The observant will be rewarded, while those who don’t hoard clues as obsessively will be delighted by the resolution of the mystery. Well, most of them, by my reckoning. I had a ball of a time with this one, very minor personal gripes aside – and will be reading more of Mr. Stang’s works in the future, in this setting and others.

Rari

Read: 100%
Review: old

This is a book that I went into with high expectations because after that cover and that blurb, how can you NOT? I am happy to say that this book lived up to every one of those expectations.

The world building is something I found very unique and I absolutely loved it. The MC, Isabeau Agarwal, is a Huntress, who has been specially trained from childhood to hunt monsters. She is ordained for this role by the Nobles, 12 foot tall mystical entities with unfathomable powers who are inaccessible to almost everyone. In the hierarchy of this world, they stand at the very top, and as their ordained Huntress, Isabeau stands above everyone else except the nobles. The Endless Hunt is independent of any government and supercedes their authority as well, a fact that both the government and the Waxwick Yard, the human police who deals with criminals, find both annoying and concerning.

There are wars happening elsewhere, constant storms occur and there are mesmers who have some kind of mystic powers and mediums who commune with the spirits of the dead. There are also technology which combined with magic can replace limbs and parts of body but which cause their owners to move slowly and awkwardly, with something like a steam engine attached to them.

The story begins as Isabeau arrives at Spindle Manor, a boarding house in search of a Dopplevyrm, a shapeshifter who can take the shape of its victims and mimic them perfectly. The Dopplevyrm is suspected to make its way to Lamplight, one of the largest cities, and if it reaches there alive, it would kill hundreds, if not thousands. Isabeau has been sent to ensure that it doesn’t happen, that the creature is identified and killed in Spindle Manor before it has had a chance to leave. There are ten guests staying at Spindle Manor, and any of them could be the Dopplevyrm.

To add to Isabeau’s confusion, a murder happens in the Manor during the night, and the hunt has become a murder investigation. Then there’s the ghost that haunts the room opposite Isabeau’s, the Malformed-monsters made by the merging of humans with animals-who lives in the attic, and the Noble who has sent Isabeau on this job residing in the hidden suite, whose express intention is to kill everyone in Spindle Manor if Isabeau fails to identify and destroy the Dopplevyrm.

The characters are all well rounded, and the prose is beautiful and flowing. I couldn’t put it down, and finished it in one sitting. Fortunately, I had a long train journey which is where I started and finished reading it.

Highly recommended for those who love historical fantasy with a twist and for those who love mysteries. In fact, I would recommend this even if you don’t like any of that, because this book is going to make you fall in love with those genres.

Timy

Read: 100%
Review: old

Murder at Spindle Manor had been on my TBR for a few years now, so I was excited when it was picked as a finalist, because now I had no excuse not to read it. As I’m in a massive reading slump, I thought starting with this would be a good way to get out of it. Or at least start to get out. And it kind of worked. I say this because I expected it to be my favorite finalist, and while it still may be, it didn’t quite live up to my expectations.

With its less than 250 pages, Murder at Spindle Manor is a book you can read in a day if you are so inclined. And once it gets going, it’s easy to get sucked into the mystery. Or mysteries, as it turns out. The setting is simple – there is a guest house full of well, beings let’s call them and Isabeau is ready to kill a monster. Alas, someone else has similar ideas as one of the travelers gets killed. So now she not only has to figure out who the monster is, but she also has to run a murder investigation.

And this is where things start getting interesting. But until we get here, we get a lot of info dumped on us as Isabeau meets all 10 guests, plus she has a companion in Evie and also there is the owner of the manor, Mrs Blanchet, and her puppet Penny. When you get all these names and personalities dropped on you in two very short chapters, it’s almost impossible to get everything straight in your head and remember the details. Especially as you can’t build any connection with either of them.

And that’s a problem for me, because I prefer character-driven stories, where I can connect with the MC (or someone belonging to the main plot, at least), and can care about what happens with them. Isabeau is a very secretive person to begin with – which is not a bad thing, mind you – but because the book is short and the plot has to move fast, there is little chance for us to get close to her. To get to know her. Yes, there is an investigation, and as interesting as it is to find the culprit, I need something more to make me interested in reading further into the series. At least we have Evie to lighten the mood here or there. I think she was my favorite character.

I haven’t read any Agatha Christie novels myself, but I did quite a few books in the genre, even books that followed the same formulas (as most of them built on what she created), and saw some of the movies made based on her work, so even I could see that’s where some of the inspiration came from for The Lamplight Murder Mysteries (book 2 is titled Murder on the Lamplight Express, if you need further proof). But if you take inspiration from a body of work that’s pretty well known, then I would expect to have a lot more meat on those bones. There is little worldbuilding here, we don’t get to know much about Ghasthia, though what we do sounds intriguing. I wished there was more, you know?

I was also annoyed by some of the dialogue, but I can’t quite put my finger on the why. Maybe because it didn’t flow quite as smoothly as I would have liked, but this can be a personal preference than anything else. Otherwise, the writing is engaging, and Stang does have a talent for drawing up characters in a very short time in a way that they don’t seem one-dimensional at all. The running from one place to another gets a bit jarring at times, but I liked how everything was revealed – even if I’m not a big fan of all the things being revealed in such a short time. Again, personal preference.

While I enjoyed the mystery and the ending was quite satisfying, I kept feeling disconnected from it all the way. I liked the last few chapters when we got a look into Isabeau’s life and feelings but it was too little, too late. That being said, if you enjoy Agatha Christie’s work but want a supernatural twist on it, I’m sure you’ll enjoy Murder at Spindle Manor. After all, it didn’t make it into the SPFBO 9 finals for nothing.

Tru

Read: 100%
Review: new

I never thought I’d be interested in reading murder mysteries or whodunits, but the joy of judging competitions such as SPFBO is that I’m encouraged to read books I may not have otherwise felt was for me. As it happens, SPFBO has turned me into a murder mystery fan, and that actually, I quite like a good mystery, so long as it comes packaged with a fantasy bow. And in the case of Murder at Spindle Manor, this book ticks many of the boxes that I long for in my fantasy; a gaslamp setting, a sinister mystery, death and humour, a book less than three-hundred pages, and a kick-ass female protagonist who hunts monsters.

Our monster hunter is none other than Huntress Isabeau Agarwal, who has arrived at the countryside inn of Spindle Manor on the hunt of a beast who murders and mimics a human victim. Hunting the beast would be straightforward, if a group of holiday goers hadn’t been staying at the inn, thus increasing the number of potential suspects. To make things even more complicated for poor Isabeau, one of their group is murdered that very night! Well, if you’re investigating a beast, you might as well investigate a murder at the same time, right?

Thus begins a dual investigation to determine the murderer and the beast, and whether there’s a connection between the two. As you can imagine from a murder mystery, there are a lot of red herrings and a few twists along the way. For a short book, there’s a sizable cast, though the author does a great job of introducing them, as I never felt lost or confused as the story went on. And not everyone is quite who they seem! Isabeau herself is a smart and determined woman who suffers the help of the Watson to her Holmes, in this case an overly-enthusiastic coach driver who challenges Isabeau’s independent side, though both hold a fondness for guns.

The gaslamp setting is brought to life with a paranormal touch, from seances, to living dolls, to monster hunting, naturally. It’s clear that there’s more to the world, and to Isabeau, waiting to be discovered. While the mystery unravels, I’ll admit that I never accurately guessed who our killer monster was, but I also felt that one half of the mystery was more interesting and impactful than the other. Despite that, the witty dialogue and humour throughout kept me entertained, and I absolutely look forward to reading more adventures of Isabeau Agarwal!

For more SPFBO content, please visit our SPFBO Champions’ League page!