The unpleasantness at the Bellona Club

How it reads

The unpleasantness at the Bellona Club is mystery (detective mystery, specifically), and its dominant mood is tense. The suspense is the kind you feel in your shoulders. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.

It's set in a big city setting, in the historical past, told in the third person across several viewpoints. Its central concerns are justice, secrets and loss and grief. In weight it sits in the middle: substantial without being heavy going.

It's a later book in a series — you'll usually want to start earlier. The ending resolves happily. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.