"Comeuppance Served Cold" by Marion Deeds presents a quaint mystery set in an English village, but for some readers, it may not hit the mark. While the story offers a blend of suspense, humor, and intriguing characters, it may fall short in delivering a truly captivating experience.

The setting is charming, and the characters are quirky, but the plot may feel predictable to some. Despite the author's attempts to keep readers guessing with twists and turns, the story may lack the depth and complexity needed to fully engage certain audiences.

Overall, while "Comeuppance Served Cold" may have its moments of charm and wit, it may not offer enough substance or originality to satisfy every reader's palate.

DNFing at 18%.

Thank you Netgalley and Tordotcom for a copy of this book for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Author's note at the beginning states this book includes patriarchal, racist, and ableist violence, both verbal and physical. There is apparently also attempted sexual assault later in the book.

I requested a copy of this book because I was intrigued by what seemed like a fast-paced 1920s murder mystery. Instead, the first 20% was the MC attending what seemed like a job interview where her potential employer makes racist remarks and explains his daughter is addicted to drugs and alcohol and needs to be cured before the wedding. The rest of the 20% is the employer making more racist remarks and the MC telling the daughter she'll cure her in 4 days?? I was.... mildly intrigued by the start of an explanation about magic being vibration-based, but not enough to keep reading this at all.

I would leave no star rating if possible due to DNFing.

I did not love this book. It took me months to finish it and that was only because I try really hard not to DNF books. I didn’t connect with any of the characters and honestly found most of them to be pretty unlikeable.

I wanted to love this one and it was pretty short so I didn’t think I’d struggle with it as much as I did.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Comeuppance Served Cold is an engaging and well written historical fantasy/mystery by Marion Deeds. Released 22nd March 2022 by Macmillan on their Tor imprint, it's 192 pages and is available in paperback and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

I found myself swept up in the story from the first page. There are three different intertwined plots which revolve around one another and culminate in a satisfying climax and denouement. An alternate 1929 Seattle where magic works and a powerful (but essentially toxically privileged, racist, misogynistic) bureaucrat is working to control and ultimately destroy vulnerable magic users in the city.

It's a short novella and the author does a superb job with world-building given the rigid length constraints of the form. She does a lot without a lot of extra wordage. The language is rough; there are instances of racism, brutality, sexism, and attempted assault. It's never used egregiously, but it is present, and sometimes difficult to see.

Four stars. Definitely a worthwhile and engaging read. The author is adept and talented. I would love to see more stories in this world.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes

If you're looking for an historical fiction with a little drop of magic, this book might be for you.

This alternate history was captivating. I won't be making a resume (exceptionally) as I'm scared I might spoil some of the plot in this book, but it was truly addictive and fast paced. The setting being in 1929 Seattle, it felt like I was reading a little bit of Gatsby with more ''heist'' and magic. Dolly's character is surprisingly amazing.

I initially requested the book because of its title, if that's the case for you as well, you won't be disappointed. Definitely recommend!

This was a fun novella with a mystery, revenge and suspense in the roaring 20s but I didn't love the characters. While I will definitely recommend this to the right reader it wasn't a favorite read for me.

I really wanted to enjoy this book because this seems like an excellent mystery series. However, there were some dark scenes that made me uncomfortable. Still, I recommend this fans of historical mysteries!

Welcome to my stop on Turn the Page Tours’ release tour for Comeuppance Served Cold! To celebrate the release of this dark and magical novella, I will be sharing my review! Be sure to check out my blog post (link in bio) for the full tour schedule!

Seattle, 1929—a bitterly divided city overflowing with wealth, violence, and magic.

A respected magus and city leader intent on criminalizing Seattle’s most vulnerable magickers hires a young woman as a lady’s companion to curb his rebellious daughter’s outrageous behavior.

The widowed owner of a speakeasy encounters an opportunity to make her husband’s murderer pay while she tries to keep her shapeshifter brother safe.

A notorious thief slips into the city to complete a delicate and dangerous job that will leave chaos in its wake.
One thing is for certain—comeuppance, eventually, waits for everyone.

You can get your copy of Comeuppance Served Cold on March 22nd from Tordotcom Books!

I feel like this novella could easily be expanded into a full-length novel, or a could serve as the springboard for other stories set in the same world! Marion Deeds developed a fascinating world in Comeuppance Served Cold, and I would love to read more about the varieties of magic and the ways this version of the 1920s functions. Besides the unique setting, my other favorite thing about Comeuppance Served Cold was the collection of fantastic side characters. I imagine it would be difficult to create compelling side characters in such a short novel, but Deeds absolutely nailed it. I found myself engaging strongly with each of the players in the story (both in positive and negative ways depending on who the character was) which is a sure sign of a solid book for me!

My Recommendation-
If you enjoy heist stories or books set in the 1920s, you should definitely grab a copy of Comeuppance Served Cold! I would especially recommend this book to anyone looking for a well-paced novella to add to their monthly reading list!

First things first, I adore the title of this book: Comeuppance Served Cold. It's fun, quirky, and a little bit evocative. It's perfect for a historical thriller, at least in my mind. Written by Marion Deeds, this book immediately caught my attention.

The year is 1929, and both magic and violence are tearing the city apart. This is a city full of the desperate, the determined, and the hypocritical. On one side, we have a city leader trying to outlaw macikers – but more than willing to use them to make his life easier.

On the other side of town is a speakeasy run by a widow who might have just found her opportunity at revenge. Then there's the thief, finding all the perfect little hidey holes and secrets of the town. Not to mention their prized possessions.

There are times when I get so excited about a book that I go into it with unfair expectations. That may have been the case here with Comeuppance Served Cold. While I didn't hate the book (thank goodness!), I did not fall over heels for it like I had hoped, assumed, and anticipated.

Comeuppance Served Cold is told in a non-linear format, which will put some readers off. Personally, I generally enjoy non-linear formats, so this wasn't the issue for me. The biggest problem here is that every transition seemed to halt the pacing, so things didn't read as smoothly as they should have.

On the bright side, the characters are an absolute delight. They were by far my favorite parts of this entire story, including the world they are based in. Marion Deeds excels at character writing and development. If the storytelling format had been focused a bit more on the characters, the whole thing would have been a much bigger success. But maybe that is simply my bias talking. Either way, I didn't regret reading Comeuppance Served Cold, though I wish it had stolen my heart as I had hoped.

This hard-boiled historical fantasy is set in an alternate 1929 Seattle, where magic runs rampant.

Dolly, an accomplished con artist, takes a job as companion to the rebellious daughter of the city's Commissioner of Magi. His vicious son runs the Order of Saint Michael the Protector, a thuggish vigilante group.

It's absorbing to watch Dolly develop her long game and succeed in her goals, albeit with high risk.

This is a wonderful mix of fantasy and mystery, with plenty of action and a remarkable lead. I really hope to read more Comeuppance adventures!

I loved how this book was written. The starts off with the heist and then counts the day towards it. This leaves you on your toes and propels you through the story. I could not stop reading. I loved the different characters. I can't wait to read whats next.

I was granted an advanced reader’s copy of Comeuppance Served Cold by Marion Deeds via NetGalley by Tordotcom in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Tor!

Comeuppance Served Cold begins with a mystery. A woman lies dead in a study while the supposed perpetrator escapes using a magical disguise. She makes her way through the streets of Seattle in 1929, and she makes her escape using a prearranged cab waiting for her at the curb. The reader is left with questions about who the woman is, who died, why in that study, and what’s all this about magic in Seattle? The stage is set for a mystery worthy of Agatha Christie herself. However, the deeper the reader plunges into this world of magic, drugs, crime, and power, the more we realize these characters are more than they seem.

After the prologue, the story is told through a series of flashbacks, some as far back as six weeks before the events described in the first few pages. Chapters tend to alternate between events surrounding Dolly White, a lady’s companion hired to help ween a rich debutante off of drugs and alcohol, and Violet Solomon, a Black owner of a local speakeasy. At first, it seems these stories aren’t related, but as the events of the book unfold it becomes clear these two women, powerful in their own ways with unique agendas, are intricately connected.

A predominate theme throughout the book is power. Magical power, societal power, and monetary power are all very important in the late 1920’s Seattle world the story describes. At the head of much of this power is Ambrose Earnshaw. He is the “White King of Magic” of Seattle, and he’s also the Commissioner of the Magi. The Commission is responsible for influencing the local council when it comes to governing the magicians and other magic users of the area. Ambrose is also a part of the Order of Saint Michael the Protector, which is run by his son, Francis. The Order serves as an unofficial police force of the magical community in Seattle, and its goal, on paper anyway, is to protect the magical community by educating and licensing magic users.

While the goals of both the Commission and the Order may be well intentioned, they can only be successful if the people at their heads are just as well intentioned and good. However, both Ambrose and Francis desire power. They already have money which allows them to wield influence like a weapon, but they also want to be in control of who is allowed to use magic. That means anyone who isn’t like them – poor, new money, immigrants, people of color, etc. – aren’t deemed worthy of using magic. Thus, the story takes place during the Prohibition Era, but it isn’t only alcohol and drugs that are being prohibited.

This world is also patriarchal with women being seen as little more than future wives or hopeless spinsters. Any woman stepping out of line is seen as a problem. In fact, Ambrose Earnshaw’s own daughter, Fiona, has been causing scandals for their family by becoming a drunkard and drug addict. This is where Dolly White comes in. With some carefully pulled strings and strategically placed recommendations, she is able to win a place in the Earnshaw household as Fiona’s lady’s companion. Dolly manages to help Fiona sober up which cements her trustworthiness in the eyes of Ambrose.

But this is magical Seattle! So, of course there is more to Dolly than meets the eye. I really enjoyed watching her character unfold, and seeing a woman ruthlessly maneuver around in a world of men to meet her goals was very satisfying. She endures sexual advances and assault all while using the arrogance of men against them to win the day. She took very real risks for her payoff because in this world the men in question liberally use fear and violence as weapons of control. She uses these tendencies in her favor, and it makes for a gratifying resolution the mystery to set forth in the prologue.

Full of intriguing ideas, Comeuppance Served Cold is a bit of a disappointing mess in execution. Slow moving, slightly confusing, with different POV characters who all sound exactly the same, it simply doesn’t live up to the conceit.

I love novels set in the 1930s, so it didn’t take me long to get into this one. And then if you add mages to the story? Yes, it’s impossible to resist.

An influential mage in town is looking for someone to get his life back on track. It’s a win-win for our heroine, Dolly White, who is looking to join his house. Dolly is not the only character we follow, but she is the main one. We don’t know what connects all the characters, but little by little, with a timeline that is not linear from one chapter to another, we discover who they are to each other.

This type of format was quite intriguing and I had a good time with the characters. It’s a fairly short novel, that we can read very quickly.

Thank you to Tordotcom and NetGalley for providing an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

This novella was so good! It's about a magical heist set in a gritty and violent Seattle in 1929, a premise that had me intrigued right from the start. It deals with issues like anti-Black racism, oppression, white supremacy, misogyny, and the power that comes with wealth and how that power can be easily abused, all of which were prevalent then and are still issues in society today.

The heist itself is really interesting and the non-linear way it's told increases the tension. There were a few things about Dolly's past that I wish were explained a little more, but they didn't impact my understanding of the plot, I just wanted more details for my own curiosity.

Point of disclosure here. I have been a colleague of Maron Deeds over at fantasyliterature.com, where both of us have reviewed for years. So given that obvious conflict, I’m not going to make this a full review. I’m just going to say after a brief period of time early on when the exposition felt a bit too explicit, I settled right into a wholly enjoyable and immersive read. I found the characters engaging, the 1920’s Seattle setting wonderfully conveyed, and the heist aspect nicely entertaining, while the story was also enhanced by substantive thematic material involving racism, classism, and misogyny. Finally, Marion tells the story in well-crafted non-linear framework, and sucker for atypical structures in storytelling as I am, I loved it. I’m a tough read for novellas as I tend to greatly prefer the greater length of a novel (and the even greater length of a series of them), and it’s true that I would have liked a longer time spent in this world to better and more fully taste everything Marion places on the table here. But leaving me wanting more is hardly an indictment and given an ending that promises the possibility of that more, I’m all good. Finally, lest you take my enthusiastic recommendation(and it is an enthusiastic one) as a given, I’ll just point out you don’t need to take my word for it. Tor has been putting out extremely top notch and highly recognized/awarded novellas for some time now; if the people there saw fit to publish Marion, you can take it as a supreme mark of quality and confidence.

It's 1929 in Seattle where magic is everywhere. Dolly white, at least that's what she's currently calling herself, has been hired by Mr Earnshaw to look out for his daughter Fiona, ensuring she stays on the right side of the law and marries the man he has arranged for her. But there is more to Dolly than we originally know. With help from allies in the magical community, Dolly puts her plan into place. A plan she hopes will end the reign of terror currently following any shifters in the city, as well as getting revenge for some young women who no longer have the ability to do it themselves. But Dolly isn't wholly good, she has her own motives for helping, she just has to make sure her plan goes off without a hitch or there will be more than her social standing in danger.

Comeuppance Served Cold is told from two POV's. Dolly, our main protagonist, and someone whose motives we know little about until quite late on in the book. She wears her disguises like hats, knowing when to seem prim and proper, and when to let the real Dolly show. She is masterful at getting people to help her, using them to her own advantage, but she also has the magical communities best interests at heart. Violet is the owner of a speakeasy, as well as a black woman which makes her rather scandalous in high society, but she has a tragic past, one that Dolly knows she can use to gain Violets help and, through her, access to the magical community. There are a multitude of side characters from Violets shifter brother Phillipe, to Fiona, the woman Dolly is watching over and, although we may not know it at first introduction, they all play a large part in the story to come.

This isn't your typical heist story. We get little to no set up of the heist, no discussions, no trial runs, no idea on what truly is going to happen until fairly late on in the book. Instead Comeuppance focuses on the characters, their goals, their wants in life and their reasoning's for taking part. Thanks in part to the mystery that surrounds her characters and the fact that the plot jumps backwards and forwards, noted thanks to highly useful dates at the start of each chapter, Deeds managed to make the story thoroughly engaging with very little action actually happening on page.

While Deeds does a superb job with the world building and magic system, no info dumps here friends, I just wanted more. Don't get me wrong, she gives us every bit of information we need to get through this book, I just want more. I would love more Novella's or even a novel set in this world so that we can explore the magic system more. Deed's writing style and the overall pace of the novella make for an incredibly quick read, one I seriously struggled to put down thanks in large to the reality she portrays through the story. Yes, I do know magic isn't real, but Deeds brings to life a fairly on point 1920's Seattle filled with prohibition, speakeasies, racism, sexism and the after effects of the stock market crash. Because of this I couldn't help but get invested in the story and want both Dolly, Violent and even Fiona to get their happy endings.

If you're in the mood for a fast paced fantasy to whet your appetite, filled with strong and witty female characters who aren't always what they seem, a brilliant and well developed magic system as well as a story that just leaves you wanting more, then look no further. I do hope the author gives us more books in this world, and I will certainly be checking out anything else she writes.

I loved reading this book! I found the writing to be very insightful and interesting. I was intrigued by the premise and I enjoyed reading it from start to finish.

I had been highly looking forward to this book, but I found myself disappointed by it.

I believe the issue with my review here is that I don’t necessarily think the book is bad–it just wasn’t for me.

I found the narrative style to be too weak on actual narrative and too strong on descriptions, which is something I dislike in a book because it can easily lean from necessary descriptors into purple prose. The non-linear time frame is something that usually works for me in novels (I greatly enjoy them, actually), but in this novel it grated on my nerves as I felt myself getting bored with the stop-and-go of the book. Every time there was another break in the time frame filled with telling me exposition I sighed heavily and wondered how much longer I had to go in the book. Since this book is less than 200 pages, that isn’t a good thing.

I did, however, greatly enjoy the characters and the overall premise. I just wish it made up for the rest of the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for early access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review. As per personal policy, since this review is rated 3 stars the review will not be appearing on any bookseller sites or on social media.

A delightful fantasy noir channeling both the witty and hardboiled sides of Dashiell Hammett's literary coin, Marion Deeds' Comeuppance Served Cold depicts a Prohibition-era Seattle controlled by rival magicians, and an industrious thief, newly arrived in town, with a heist in mind that will set it all to fall like dominoes. Readers may see some similarities with a current series of wizard-centric films set between World Wars, and fans of that series will certainly enjoy this, but Deeds' slim volume's intricate attention to worldbuilding, diversity, and pace reveals this as the superior product. And the mansions, speakeasies, and haberdasheries of old Seattle make for wonderful settings as the plot unfurls and the characters chew through the scenery with dialogue recalling Hammett's The Thin Man. If I am to level a single criticism at Comeuppance Served Cold, it's that the novel felt a bit like a well-written pilot to a TV show, leaving me wanting more. Hopefully this becomes a series.