This is another excellent installment in the Secrets of Ormdale! Edith's last adventure took her to the mountains of Wild Wales, and now we find her venturing onto the shadowy streets of London, where she'll encounter secrets, suffragettes, and mad (or, at least, very ethically questionable) science.

Though we have a new setting, this book contains all the things we've come to love and expect from Ormdale: dragons; strong family relationships and friendships; dire danger balanced with cozy comfort; villains who are, in some ways, all too realistic for all that they're working with dragons; and Edith, our favorite cleric's daughter/novelist-turned-dragon-keeper. (This book features rather a lot of Edith-as-novelist, as a matter of fact, and that delighted me.) We also get to meet more of Edith's family — specifically her cousin, Stephen, and his son, Crispin, both of whom are very fun — and learn a little more about Janushek (much to my delight).

Spoiler

We also meet a representative of another dragon-keeper family, one that actually seems nice and not inclined to scheming, and that was a delight. I don't know about the Tallantire family in general, but if they're all like our new friend, I hope we see more of them in future!

One notable aspect of City of Serpents is that it is, in some ways, the most historical-feeling of the Ormdale books thus far. Yes, all the books are historical fantasy, but the remote locations of the previous books meant they leaned strongly to the fantasy side of the genre. On the other hand, City of Serpents deals very heavily with very specific movements, social issues, attitudes, and people of its era in a way that's reminiscent of Suzannah Rowntree's Miss Sharp and Miss Dark novels. I found these elements to be very well-done, and they helped the theme of the story come through much more strongly than it otherwise would've.

In terms of storyline and character arcs, City of Serpents is as excellent as ever. I admit to some misgivings in the early chapters, when Edith is very determined to go off and do things alone . . . but, thankfully, she doesn't spend the whole book being like "I have to do this on my own in order to protect everyone else." (I shouldn't have doubted, honestly. Edith is too sensible for that, and Christina Baehr is too good an author to send her main character down that path.) I enjoyed Edith's adventures and misadventures as she navigates London high and low society, deals with Farley, and demonstrates the kind of cleverness one would expect from an author of detective fiction.

As always, this book has left me both delighted and eager for the next installment. It's hard to believe that the series is almost over — but I have no doubt that the conclusion will be truly excellent.