Publisher's Weekly Review
The first in a new trilogy for Lostetter (Neumenon) uneasily blends fantasy with quasi-procedural detective work. Krona, a young Regulator, is assigned to guard a collection of enchanted artifacts on display at a celebration for the chief magistrate of Lutador. But when a monstrous varg attacks the event, the assault draws Krona's attention long enough for two especially dangerous items to be stolen from the exhibit: a regulated despairstone brooch and executed serial killer Louis Charbon's death mask. Determined to prove herself to her sister and superior, De-Lia, Krona resolves to catch the thieves and retrieve the items. But soon corpses begin to pile up throughout the city-state, suggesting that she's got a Louis Charbon copycat killer on her hands. Lostetter intersperses Krona's hunt for the killer with backstories involving Melanie Depont, a woman searching for a cure for her dying mother, and Louis Charbon himself, who was a legitimate surgeon before getting caught up in a sinister religious plot. The worldbuilding is impressive but overextended, with Lostetter's highly detailed scene setting and frequent digressions into Lutador's creation myths making for a cumbersome narrative. It's an uneven opening, but there's plenty of potential for series installments to come. (Apr.)
Booklist Review
Lostetter's (Noumenon, 2017) new series kicks off with a dramatic heist. An enchanted mask, along with other forbidden magical items, is on display at a party to honor the Chief Magistrate, and new Regulator Krona Hirvath is tasked with keeping an eye on it. Everything is going smoothly until it isn't, and the theft succeeds and launches a series of events that spiral out of control. The mask belonged to notorious serial killer Louis Charbon, famous for his disgusting deeds, and the knowledge he gained before his death enchants the object. As bodies pile up, killed in the Charbon method, it appears a copycat is on the loose, though the motive is unknown. Krona and her fellow Regulators must solve the mystery before more victims are claimed. Weaving the tale through three separate stories--those of Krona, an apprentice healer named Melanie, and Charbon himself--Lostetter ties them all together masterfully in the end. While the story may lag a bit in some parts, it is well worth the effort to push through, and readers will be left wanting more after the novel's cliffhanging conclusion.
Library Journal Review
Lostetter (Noumenon) makes her fantasy debut with this title. In book one of a five-part series, we are introduced to Krona, a soldier in a Europe-coded world, who is present when an exhibition opening is raided and a valuable artifact of terrible power is stolen--it's the death mask of Louis Charbon (a notorious long-dead serial killer). Now Krona is caught up in the search for a gruesome new murderer, who dissects his victims ruthlessly, then arranges their mangled bodies into disturbingly beautiful flower forms--killings in the style of Charbon, who had created an art form known as "Death Is Art." Krona enlists the aid of Thibaut (part-ally, part-aristocratic pain in the ass) in the search for the killer, who is always elusively just out of reach. VERDICT This tale has creative worldbuilding and an intense focus on the psychology of a killer. Its unresolved ending will leave readers either frustrated or eager to tackle the next installment in the series.--Jane Henriksen Baird, formerly at Anchorage P.L., AK
