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This is book finish #2 of NYE, because I decided to spend the last day of 2021 trying to finish off some straggler books. Earlier today I finished The Christmas Egg by Mary Kelly, which I started around December 15. I started this book even longer ago, for the Appointment with Agatha November side-read. I don’t really recall why I got sidetracked, because I liked the beginning of the book, and I know that Themis-Athena liked it fairly well. But, bogged down I was, so I decided that this would be one of my final 2021 finishes.
The middle did drag for me a bit, and I’m pretty sure that my extended reading time interfered with my ability to fully understand the mystery because by the time I got to the end, I had largely forgotten the beginning. The murderer here is a nasty piece of work, and the underlying plot was really good, though. And the very urban, industrial London setting is unique for this era of book.
According to the back matter, the author, Josephine Bell, was a medical doctor, which makes sense because her depiction of the London doctors (there were several throughout the story) was really good. She seems to be have been a really interesting woman, and I hope that BLCC puts more of her books back into print.
At this point, I think I am going to pull my copy of Eye of the World back out and see if I can make some progress. I have no illusions about finishing it today, but it would be nice to get some more of it under my belt!