Anne Bogel

It really does.

And I will tell you, I wonder how much mood has to do with this.

I inhaled it on my first read.

And when I revisited it during a busy time of my life, maybe five years ago, I struggled.

But

But I do think it's worth a try for you, just purely based on what you know about your own reading life.

Because for those interested in interrogating the past, books with investigators or amateur literary investigators as they are here, it's an academic mystery.

It does have that same...

I mean, it has two characters who have teamed up to be investigators to the past.

And her prose is very elegant, lyrical, vivid.

And if you like that kind of thing, she has fictional letters and poems and journal entries in her books that are written by many characters, not just one.

I think it could be a lot of fun for you.

And it's also set during a time period that I believe you're interested in.

So this is about two scholars who are researching the lives of Victorian poets, particularly Randolph Henry Ashe and also another named Christabel Lamont.

And they are...

on a mission to discover the truth about these writers because it's ash they were first interested in but then they accidentally stumble upon this evidence that makes them think like wait was there an illicit love affair happening between these two victorian writers because that would change what we understand about their lives it would change the things we understand about their works and their meanings so they embark on this quest to discover the truth

And they're chasing this trail of evidence through the ages and through many a library.

But also this quest calls them to examine their own personal relationships.

So we've got that back and forth in time element happening here.

I'm wondering how that sounds to you today.