Amusing if horribly silly story of an upper middle class Victorian pompous ass investigator & his assistant in a tale complete with all Victorian British bigotry stereotypes tropes of others. The tropes can be a little grating but they are a good example of the class structure & way people thought. These two apparently died in the last book & then went to Egypt & the Gods there & solved a mystery for Anubis have now gone to Valhalla to wreck havoc on the Dieties there & find the stolen bowl keeping venom from Loki's face.
A classic line I agree with of one of the first materials used probably making runes
“Er,” said Wilfred, peering at the small white shapes that so interested Brynhild. “Are those bones?”Indeed, the things looked like a collection of finger bones, on which markings had been made. “Of course,” said Brynhild distractedly. “They’re runes, what else would they be made of?”
They go fumbling through the 9 worlds getting caught in favors & dilemmas at ever turn. Apparently this is a series of their mishaps

A fantastic fantasy mystery that kept me guessing throughout the book I actually finished it in one sitting . I highly recommend to anyone

An interesting and quirky tale of Barnabas and Wilfred as they adventure their way through Norse mythology. Funny and orignal, an excellent read.

The second, fun supernatural mystery of the series

I enjoyed this book. Like in Barnabas Tew and the Case of the Missing Scarab, Columbkill Noonan tells a good, well-paced, lighter story. All the things I liked about the first book of the series, I liked about this one too. The characters are well developed and quirky. Some of the wording is very clever and worthy of re-reading. If you liked the Inspector Hobbes books by Wilkie Martin, or The Case of the Deadly Doppelganger by Lucy Banks then you will like this as well. They are all well-written supernatural series wrapped up in friendly and humorous packages. I recommend this book for those who want to read lighter fantasy.

I received a copy of this book on NetGalley for an honest review. I did not read the book that came before this one, but I sort of picked up on the gist of it while reading Nine Worlds. What drew me in was the Norse mythology component, and while some things differed from the mythological readings I know and love, there was a lot that paid tribute to the tales, as well. Overall, I enjoyed the wittiness and back and forth banter between the characters. I had a clear picture in my mind of what Barnabas and Wilfred looked like, and some bits had me chuckling out loud. For example, the scene in which the three main characters appear before Freya as they “ended up moving up and down repeatedly like a family of alarmed hedgehogs popping their heads out of their hidey-holes.” 😊 Charming! I always appreciate a story that can make me laugh. I would say this kind of story, although extremely well written with fantastic dialogue, is an acquired taste nevertheless. I, personally, would be interested in going back to read the first book in the series, or the next one coming.

I love Barnabas Tew, I love how the plots are developed and find them entertaining and amusing.
A very good read.
Recommended!
Many thanks to Columbkill Noonan and Netgalley for this ARC

I'm sorry to say that I couldn't read much of this book and gave up reading it quite quickly. It has many qualities, especially a beautiful,old-fashioned style with a humorous effect. But that was precisely the problem for me: I felt that the story was, since the very beginning, just a pretext to perky banter, funny misunderstanding, spectacular scenes. The style is very evocative, the scenes are easy to imagine in a cartoonish way - but that's not what I'm looking for in a book.
It's exactly for the same reason that I could never read more then the half of "Bilbo the hobbit" by Tolkien: a lively and quaint style, a hero gauche and supposedly cute, who's courageous in adversity and against mocking, but a story that fails to keep me entertained.
It was an error to choose this book, I should have read the kindle extract first...

If you like your religious pantheons all mixed together - the Egyptian afterlife is real, the Norse afterlife is real, etc. - you'll probably like this. It's the second book of two (to date) and while it's a standalone story I felt like I was missing some of the background. Start with the first one if you can.