The Cabinets of Barnaby Mayne

Score: 5/5 Bookmarks

Thank you to Minotaur Books and Macmillan Audio for gifting me review copies of The Cabinets of Barnaby Mayne by Elsa Hart.

I was completely sucked into this book from the first chapter and devoured it in a weekend. I don’t know what it is about a cozy mystery particularly if it has a female detective, and preferably set in 1700s London, but I am here for it and I need Elsa Hart to write fifteen more books pronto.

Our heroine, Lady Cecily Kay has a passion for botany and arrives at the house of Sir Barnaby Mayne to spend time studying his collection of specimens…when Mayne is murdered. Despite someone confessing to killing him, Cecily suspects that not everything is as it seems, and takes it upon herself to start investigating. She teams up with a childhood friend, who just happens to be a scientific illustrator and also conducting work with the Mayne collection when all of this goes down. The two of them get into all sorts of trouble and danger together and take the reader along for the ride.

The pacing of the story was perfect for me, and it was so descriptive that I almost felt I could reach out and touch a sharp crocodile tooth, or stroke the colorful feathers of an exotic parrot at times. I loved the women who star in the story, they were wonderfully bold and intelligent (which certainly wouldn’t have been encouraged in the 1700s).

The audiobook is also expertly narrated by Barrie Kreinik, who despite being American does a wonderful British accent, and I loved every second of the 9-hour, 53-minute performance. You can click here to get the audiobook, or use the button below to get a physical copy.

Synopsis:

London, 1703. In a time when the old approaches to science coexist with the new, one elite community attempts to understand the world by collecting its wonders. Sir Barnaby Mayne, the most formidable of these collectors, has devoted his life to filling his cabinets. While the curious-minded vie for invitations to study the rare stones, bones, books, and artifacts he has amassed, some visitors come with a darker purpose.

For Cecily Kay, it is a passion for plants that brings her to the Mayne house. The only puzzle she expects to encounter is how to locate the specimens she needs within Sir Barnaby's crowded cabinets. But when her host is stabbed to death, Cecily finds the confession of the supposed killer unconvincing. She pays attention to details--years of practice have taught her that the smallest particulars can distinguish a harmless herb from a deadly one--and in the case of Sir Barnaby's murder, there are too many inconsistencies for her to ignore.

To discover the truth, Cecily must enter the world of the collectors, a realm where intellect is distorted by obsession and greed. As her pursuit of answers brings her closer to a killer, she risks being given a final resting place amid the bones that wait, silent and still, in the cabinets of Barnaby Mayne.