That was masterful! KJ Charles has written another 5 star book, this one a cold case murder mystery filled with complicated grief, the optimism of youth dashed by tragedy, but there is also hope in facing the past and beginning to heal. All of the pieces came together beautifully, from the snippets of the past we discover along the way of what happened when the Seven Wonders were at school, to each encounter Jem has with the remaining of them in the present after a decade of absence. The complexities of the characters were great too, nobody was quite so black and white as a villain or a victim.

K.J. Charles is no longer self-publishing's best kept secret. Sourcebooks published her 2023 M/M historical duology, The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen, and A Nobleman's Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel. Orion recently released the previously self-pub'd The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting, with a follow up scheduled for July. And she recently announced an additional three-book deal with Sourcebooks. So it's a perfect opportunity for her to spread her literary wings and experiment with a new genre - historical mystery. Of course, she nails it.

England, 1905. Downtrodden hero Jeremy "Jem" Kite loses his menial clerk job when his boss receives an anonymous letter linking Jem to the unsolved murder of his Oxford classmate ten years ago. With no college degree and few employment prospects, Jem decides that his life will never improve unless he identifies the note writer - and the killer. He has a finite list of suspects: the five other surviving members of the once close-knit "Seven Wonders."

Flashback to 1895. As a first year scholarship student at Oxford, Jem is astonished to find himself, club foot and all, recruited into an ebullient, exclusive circle of upper class men and women. He initially suspects that his acceptance by these shining stars is part of a cruel joke. But by the end of first term, he is secure in his place and envisioning a bright future with his new BFFs. That lasts until third year, when Toby Feynsham, the group's ringleader, is murdered. Due to the circumstances of his death, the friends are acutely aware that the killer has to be one of them. Jem has a mental breakdown and never finishes school. The other Wonders scatter and lose touch with each other, until Jem stirs the pot by asking questions.

There's nothing worse than a mystery in which the characters take a backseat to the clues and theories of the crime. Fortunately KJC brings her brilliant character building skills to this new genre. It's easy to identify from page one with Jem, a disabled scholarship student without social graces or connections who is briefly one of the Best and the Brightest, before his bubble is cruelly popped and his illusions are shattered. Jem may be "a drab man with a drab job," but through his investigation he discovers strength and cunning that help him uncover long-held secrets. The other characters, especially the victim's best friend Nick, are also richly drawn, to the point where I found myself wishing that the "Random Crazy Lunatic" theory of the murder espoused by Oxford's administration would somehow be proven accurate.

The book is set at the turn of the 20th century, but the issues uncovered by Jem's dogged pursuit of the truth are alarmingly relevant today. Timeless themes of justice, redemption, and morality are also explored, with the book's denouement demonstrating that these concepts are rarely black and white. The Seven Wonders perform Shakespeare's Cymbeline just prior to Toby's murder, and many of the play's themes are echoed in the novel (also, it's Mr. KJC's favorite).

Charles has been very upfront that Death in the Spires is not a historical romance, but that it has "romantic elements." The physical relationship between Jem and another member of the group is essential to understanding the past, but their future together is murky. If you squint really hard, you can just barely imagine an HFN ending, but that could be my stubborn romance novel mind grasping at straws.

KJC's foray into historical mystery shows that her incredible talents are easily transferable to other genres. I'd follow her anywhere.

I really really enjoyed this. I read it compulsively and have had a major book hangover since it finished.

If you have enjoyed KJ Charles' romances for their combo of gripping plot and thoughtful characterisations, than I feel pretty confident that you would like her murder mystery too. The twisty of the murder plot - 6 friends caught in a web of mutual doubt and suspicion over the murder of their mutual friend ten years earlier - is definitely compelling, but the real success for me is in the portrayals of the friends, both currently and in the past.

By setting the story ten years later, Charles really emphasises the powerful and painful trauma that the death had on the living, and it is this that gave the story such heart and left me feeling bereft at the end. The murder has torn them apart and we the readers get to see how they can recover from it.

As always with Charles' work, the inequalities of gender, race, class and sexuality are laid bare, especially with our protagonist Jem representing a more relatable figure than many of the other Oxford students.

Highly recommended for all KJ Charles fans (with the reminder that it is a mystery *not* a romance), but also all fans of historical mysteries.

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free ARC*

This is one of the most enjoyable books I have read in a long time. I could not put it down, happened to have a long train journey and just read it through. I found the story really interesting. I loved the context of Oxford but particularly the characters. Yes, it could be criticised for stereotypical characters but for me they felt real. I thought the story and the plot were excellent and the book really well written.

A great book and brilliant characters. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved the pacing. It had me hooked from start to finish. A great pageturner

You'd never know this is KJ Charles' first murder mystery. It's a book that grabs hold of you, holds on tight, and hauls you along, breathless. at an ever-increasing speed until the end. I'm not surprised some people stayed up through the night to finish the book.

Jeremy Kite is a disappointed man. Working class, queer, with a disability and a keen mathematical mind, Jem made it to Oxford. He was an outsider but to his astonishment, he was drawn into a circle of disparate, charming friends. Everything went swimmingly, until it didn't. One explosive evening changed everything, leaving one of their number dead. Now, a decade later, Jem's determined to discover what happened. Why his life since has been spent in limbo, a feeble phantom of the promise university life offered.

As he works to uncover the murderer, rumours and accusations swirl around inside Jem's head, each new theory seeming as plausible as the last. All his erstwhile friends apparently have their reasons to kill. Maybe. If Jem can force the killer out into the open.

KJ Charles spins a satisfyingly complex web, pushing you to view each character through a variety of lenses. And beware, there's a sting in the tail. A page=turner in the very best tradition.

I completely adored this. Oh my god I can’t even begin to explain how perfect I found this book. I can feel it sitting under my chest still.

The premise commences simply enough. Following on 10 years after the murder of his friend at Oxford in 1905, Jem is still being haunted by the events of that night and after an anonymous letter is delivered to his work, leading to the loss of his job, Jem sets out to uncover the truth (very I Know What You Did Last Summer vibes there at the start).

Regarding the quality- It’s KJ Charles and if you know, you know, I don’t need to sell you on how accomplished her skill as a writer and storyteller is. KJ Charles prefaced this book by saying that it was a murder mystery and not a romance. I think that this was a completely unnecessary disclaimer, cause I have rarely read a story that demonstrated so many layered, complex, genuine and sometimes toxic relationships and demonstrations of love and I am OBSESSED.

The whole cast of characters was fabulous. I feel reluctant to say too much to give anything away but everyone in the group of friends felt well realised as characters with genuine and complex motivations. Jem was a delightful main character who was clever and damaged and whose heartache and pain caused me to have actual goosebumps.

This, at times gave me dark academia vibes that triggered off elements of Babel or Saltburn. This was a tense, emotional, engaging and queer historical mystery and will go down as one of my favourites for the year.

Thank you to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for the opportunity to read this ARC.

This was my first K. J. Charles book, and I certainly made a great choice! I was pulled into this book from Page 1, and it never let me go. It is a story of a group of Oxford College students, who felt like they ruled the world until the murder of the group leader changed all their lives. The story picks up ten years later, and since the murder has never been solved, the friends have gone their separate ways, but when a letter accusing one of being the murderer causes him to lose his job, he decides that he will find the answer. What follows is a story of friendship, loss, betrayal, and coming to terms with what is really important. Well-written characters you care about, and a satisfying ending. Fabulous!

I received an ARC for free and gave my honest opinion voluntarily.

This book is simply adorable! It is a very well-written story from beginning to end. I recommend reading about these friends who... I loved it. You must read it.

A solid mystery! I've been devouring KJ Charles' books all year, and this has elements of what I've come to expect - class conflict, gay panic, hiding feelings, and discussions of primogeniture and disability - but rather than this being a story of healing via finding love and acceptance, this delves deeply into the consequences of an unsolved murder, and what comes crawling out when someone starts overturning rocks to find out who committed the murder ten years prior.

The main character, Jeremy "Jem" Kite, has had his life thoroughly ruined and has spent the last ten years just, basically, going through the actions of living. Making enough money to get by, but without hopes or dreams of anything more. He loses his job, has a little bit of savings, and decides he's done living under the shadow of the infamous murder of his friend and find out what happened.

Jem's not a trained detective - he's read some fiction - and takes some truly astonishingly steps on his way to finding out the truth. His lack of self preservation serves him well, though, and he's able to reunite with his former-friends-maybe-murderers and learn more about what they knew and the truth of what happened their final year at Oxford.

The truth is painful, but in the end allows for healing and hopefully a better future for all who survive. Thanks to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for the opportunity to review this ARC!

I went in knowing that this was a murder mystery and not a romance. I had braced myself for a dark academia story about a murder and the efforts of one Jem Kite in trying to solve it, SANS ROMANCE, and I did not allow myself to expect anything else from this. I went in with adjusted expectations because this is a step away from KJC's usual style and she warned us over and over again that this wasn't going to be a Romance with a capital R.
Well. I mean.
YOU GUYS. I FOUND THIS TO BE ROMANTIC AF.
So, yeah. Maybe not romance-centric, but definitely, DEFINITELY a romantic story?
The romance isn't capital R, but it still soaked the pages in the background and drove the MC's actions.
Yes it was dark, but it had me swooning. Classic KJC, making people swoon.

Let's talk writing style. I've read ALL of KJC's books AND bonus stories. I would recognize her in total darkness, where she mute and I deaf, lol, but I might not have been able to recognize her writing style in this particular book if I didn't know I was reading her work. Don't get me wrong, the story was superbly written, as with every single one of her books, but it was somehow different from all the others. It was dark and nostalgic, and even in the lightest portions of the book (the flashbacks to happier times) there was still a sense of deep sadness and despair just oozing from the MC's pov. It was breathtaking and devastating. One understands Jem's heartbreak not through his words or actions, but through the prose itself, and on that alone, it stands out from the rest of her novels.

KJC promised a murder mystery, but she delivers so much more than that. Ruth Ware writes murder mysteries, with a twist that you do not see coming at all (often infuriatingly ridiculous twists too and that's why you don't see them coming) and wooden characters that do stupid things to keep pushing the plot line. Death in the Spires is not JUST a murder mystery. It's a story of love and friendship, of regret and forgiveness or perhaps acceptance. I wouldn't say it's the story of Jem Kite trying to solve a mystery, but of him trying to put his mind to rest because he's always known the answer to the mystery, and he simply cannot live like that anymore. As such, the "big reveal" did not really feel like one. The entire purpose was to follow Jem in his journey to acceptance. God, how I loved that. Loved how the focus shifted from finding out who did it to what are they to do now they know the truth.

This is a murder mystery with a frigging soul, is what it is.

The characters. Wow. I cannot express how deeply I felt about Jem. There was just such a profound vulnerability to him. He reminded me of Valery Kolkhanov from the Half Life of Valery K by Natasha Pulley, with his quiet intelligence, his politeness, his innocence. He was a perfect MC to follow around, both in the flashbacks and in the present. When he suffered, I suffered. When he felt just a tiny bit of joy, I did as well times a hundred. I was not ready to leave him when the novel ended.

There were still mentions of intimacy, fade to black. I loved how well the scenes were delivered.

I absolutely loved this book. KJC's done it again. Five stars.

Hooo boy, if this happens when KJ Charles isn’t required to write a romance HEA and people being nice to each other, I’m here for it!

(For the love of god, do not go into this with an expectation of a romance novel! I dare say you won't be left entirely empty-handed or damaged for life but you won't get what you seek.)

The mystery is solid and I really enjoyed trying to guess the whodunnit (I didn’t guess the murderer - I spent the majority of the novel jumping between the suspects like a rabbit on speed - but I did guess the biggest asshole for which I’m very pleased with myself). However, the thing I enjoyed even more is Charles’s work with characters and also how effortlessly she weaves in bigger (and topical) themes, such as female agency and bodily autonomy, racism, social inequality and privilege.

This book is at once heavy and angry and vicious and gentle and deeply human. It's about friendship, guilt and forgiveness and the poison of lies and secrets. The whodunnit is important but not for the reasons it normally is in a murder mystery.

I received the ARC from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

(Siri, remind me to check the Goodreads review in a year to see how many dudes are leaving outraged reviews because they picked this murder mystery and found *gasp* gays in it.)

It's been well over a year since I read a book that I didn't want to put down, that made me annoyed that there were other things happening that made me have to put the book down. This book was that book and it was amazing!

This isn't a romance, but it is kind of a love story about friendship, even friendship that is not what you might think it is. I would love to see more of Jem and Nicky, but I want to see more about all of the other characters just as much. I did not want to leave this world behind and contemplated just starting to reread it immediately. This is a mystery, but, for me, that might have been the least important part of the story. The destruction of the friendship of the Seven Wonders, the impact of finding out that the your friends weren't who you thought, and how that continued to affect all of them was so well-done. I loved seeing them come back together to finally resolve Toby's murder to their satisfaction. I loved that they recognized as a group that sometimes things can be resolved without involving law enforcement, that maybe what happened was better for everyone involved, and that payment had been made already was wonderful. Charles has an amazing ability to write morally ambiguous characters that are relatable, and that you can care deeply about. The world that she created was just so all-encompassing and wonderful to live in, the friendships were so deeply felt, and the tension of the who-dunnit and who=was=doing it was perfectly spot on. I would love to see her follow up with these characters because I feel like we need to know what happens next for all of them. I hope that the lives they lead are better for the resolution and their possibly re-kindled friendships.

This is absolutely going on my reread rotation. I hope that we get audio someday as well!

Loved it! KJ's foray into mystery writing (although only technically, as much of her romances have mystery elements and this, delightfully, has a little romance). Rich characters, emotive and funny and dangerous all at once. KJ's writing is always clear, immaculate, and character rich.

Its 1905 and Jeremy (Jem) Kite is a lowly clerk. However, ten years ago his future looked promising, he had won a maths scholarship to St Anselm's college at Oxford and rather than being ostracised and looked down for his humble Midlands upbringing and his club foot, he became part of an eclectic group of seven friends led by Toby Feynsham. Collectively the friends were known as the Seven Wonders. There was Toby, heir apparent to the Marquess of Grevesham, beautiful and charismatic, his twin sister Ella, a brilliant chemist in her own right, Nicky Rook, jaded beyond his years studying English, Hugo Morley-Adams son of a wealthy shipbuilder studying history, Aaron Oyede a black man studying medicine with a wickedly dry sense of humour, and Prudence Lenster, Ella's roommate also studying maths. Collectively they were extremely clever, dominated at several sports, took the leads in a Shakespeare play and were generally the best and brightest of their year.

Everything started to go wrong the term they put on a production of Cymbeline, there seemed to be tensions between different factions, love triangles, spite, and jealousy. Then one terrible night, after the seven of them argued viciously, Toby was murdered with his letter opener in a locked room. The murderer was never found but the finger of suspicion cast its shadow on all of the remaining six, friendships shattered. Jem had a nervous breakdown, failed his exams and left Oxford, his future in ruins.

When someone sends an anonymous letter to Jem's employer accusing him of Toby's murder, Jem realises that he will never be free of the suspicion until the murderer is uncovered. He knows that he and his friends didn't tell the police everything about that night, and he suspects at least one person lied to give another an alibi. What the police don't know is that the door to Toby's rooms had a trick lock that you could lock from the outside, only the seven of them knew that and therefore Jem concludes that one of the remaining six must have been the murderer.

With some flashbacks to 1895, we follow Jem as he meets with his old friends, all of them have secrets, and none of them want him to pursue the truth. But Jem feels he has led a half-life for the last decade, afraid of being identified as one of the seven, afraid of being accused yet again of murder, having to leave one job after another, never making friends and he is determined to uncover the truth.

I really enjoyed this, about halfway through I started to feel that any of them could have been the murderer and perversely that I didn't want any of them to have done it. Given that, I thought the uncovering of the murderer was done very well.

Overall, I am fairly new to KJ Charles but have loved absolutely everything I have read so far.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.

4.5 ⭐️

A KJ Charles book that is not a genre romance??? Squeak!

For those of you low-key freaking out, let me break this down for you:

-- KJC is not lying when she is using all her platforms to warn fans that this is a murder mystery rather than a romance. Expectation-setting is important, y'all! The mystery -- the murder of golden boy Toby in his Oxford digs shortly before final exams -- is what drives the plot and the resolution. Unlike the Society of Gentlemen series, or Jackdaw, or Magpies, or Will Darling, or . . . basically any other book KJC has written, where the romance is clearly the central narrative but is impelled/ complicated/ challenged by some sort of crime or intrigue implicating one or both MCs -- and where the resolution of the intrigue plot is a means to the end of the HEA, rather than a goal in itself -- this book forefronts the narrator's determination to solve Toby's murder.

-- KJC is, however, adhering very much to the letter rather than the spirit of the law here. There is a meaty romantic subplot in both timelines -- pining galore! -- and, while it's not as developed as it would be in a capital-r Romance, you don't have to squint too hard to see an HEA (or at least an HFN) hovering off-page. The ending sees resolution for the mystery, which, in turn, sets the remaining characters -- all of whom have been living with the shattering consequences of Toby's murder for a decade -- on a more hopeful path, finally able to start moving forward. Indeed, while the Jem-Nicky relationship is the most central, this is at least as much about the friendships among this group that, to outsiders -- and, for most of three years, to Jem -- are the best, the brightest, the shiniest stars: a tangle of love, jealousies, secrets, and betrayals that ended in bloodshed, lies, and silence stretching over 10 years.

Jem, our narrator, is a working class scholarship lad whose three years at Oxford were like something plucked out of a fairy tale. Already on his first day in college, he is taken under the wing of Toby Feynsham, heir-apparent to a marquess, louche, charming, spoiled, and generous, the sun around whom a group of outcasts orbit: Jem, who is not just poor but also small and waifish, with a clubfoot that gives him a pronounced limp; Aaron, the college's only Black student, whose poshness does not does protect him from unrepentant racism; Prue, mousy and determined, the roommate and friend to Toby's twin sister, the brilliant Ella. Rounding out the "Seven Wonders", as the group is known, is Nicky, a friend and schoolmate of Toby's since childhood, whose unrequited love for Toby the group politely ignores; and Hugo, a posh, likable fellow whose ambition is the most notable thing about him.

This is a cleverly done dual-timeline story told entirely in Jem's POV. We start in 1905, ten years on from the murder. Jem is in a pitiful state, working a grudge job, subsisting just above poverty level, never recovered from the psychic blow he received the night of Toby's murder and from his subsequent failure to pass his exams. A malicious letter to his workplace names him a murderer; newly unemployed and fed up with the suspicion and gossip that shadows him, he determines once and for all to find out which of them killed Toby. We then follow 1905 Jem making contact with the estranged group of one-time friends and doggedly uncovering the secrets they've clung to, to his own physical and emotional peril; while the earlier timeline takes us through Jem's college years, at first joyful, exuberant, and golden, before imploding in spectacular fashion. Throughout, Jem is forced to reappraise what he thought he knew about those years; he must also reckon with what Toby's death has done to all of them, including those whose external circumstances are much less pressed than his. Among the latter is Nicky, now a fellow at their old college, whose short liaison with -- and betrayal of -- Jem has shaped Jem's life as irrevocably as Toby's death.

No spoilers here except to say that the resolution is very KJC, forcing us to sit with questions of justice and forgiveness and how we reckon grave sins against each other, and who can ultimately make these judgements. It is, at once, hopeful, but also deeply sad: the story of a man who had everything and, in losing it, lost himself; who decided to take everyone and everything down with him, to hurt and destroy, rather than accept being outshined. In typical KJC fashion, it is briskly paced, extremely well written, and masterfully constructed.

As a romance reader, I can admit that this wasn't as emotionally satisfying as other KJC reads. The lack of an on-page HEA leaves me wanting more than the glimpse we get of brighter days ahead. KJC's characteristic dry humor is also thin on the ground, replaced instead with a resonant but melancholy oppressiveness: it is always foggy, rainy, and cold; Jem is both in constant pain and in severely straightened circumstances; none of the characters can really be trusted. But if I'm reading this on its own terms -- as a mystery rather than a romance -- then I can't find much to quibble with. Unlike many KJCs, I'm not sure this is a book I'll go back to. But it is an accomplished, twisty story with absorbing characters, more than a hint of romance, and a real-to-life resolution that shows KJC's willingness to step out of her comfort zone, and I can't help but reward it.

(For those wondering -- there are non-explicit bedroom scenes/ references to sex -- but this is fade-to-black/ PG-13.)

(Also, pedant's gonna pedant: All Souls is not a degree-granting college, so while Nicky could have had a fellowship there, he couldn't have gotten his D.Phil there. Sorry, Nicky!)

<i>I got an ARC from Storm Publishing via NetGalley</i>

A jammed door can change everything. The build up was amazing. The suspense I felt kept me wanting to read more and more. This was a story I could read over and over!

This is a fun, atmospheric little murder mystery that does tell a story we've all read before: A group of friends at university, one of them gets murdered, all of them might have had a motive to have committed said murder. K.J. Charles doesn't reinvent the wheel, but she doesn't have to either because she makes the well-known concept entirely her own. I really enjoyed Jem as our protagonist because he's so wonderfully imperfect and flawed and unusual, and while they aren't super fleshed out, I enjoyed the rest of the group too.
I did feel like the story got a little repetitive at some point because Jem was constantly summarizing his findings and thoughts on the case he tries to solve 10 years later, to a point where it was unnecessary and didn't give us as readers anything we didn't already know. The twists and turns of the story were well done, even though not all of them were that surprising. And yes, the book is still queer - I really really love it when authors write outside of their usual playgrounds but maintain the elements in their stories they are known for.
So in conclusion? I hope Charles decides to write more murder mysteries, because this one was fun, had amazing vibes, and is just the kind of pageturner that you can devour in one sitting and gladly do so.

OKAY. Big KJ fan over here so I was really excited to get my hands on this one early! As a tried and true KJ fan, I was both surprised and delighted by how different this felt compared to her other works but with the same excellent writing and real-world feel that we're all used to. As KJ has tried to point out: this is not a romance novel. HOWEVER, if you like any of KJ's books, I think you'll love this one too. If you like a classic mystery novel, you'll like this one!

I love mystery books, I love unreliable narrators, and I love queer fiction, so this one was a hit for me. We're 10 years out from a murder that took place in a group of 7 unlikely friends. The murder ends up being the equivalent of an modern day infamous true crime case and the public has never stopped speculating. The friends quietly disperse from Oxford following the murder, never to speak again, and it's not until 10 years later that our main character decides that it's time to figure out what happened that night, starting with the knowledge that only the 6 remaining friends know to be a fact - the culprit could only be one of them.

I loved this book so much, I read it in 1 sitting. KJ does an unreliable narrator SO well. It's incredible to feel the nostalgia of the Oxford memories and then look back on the same scenes later feeling incredulous about it all.

I was so excited to receive this ARC in exchange for an honest review of the book :)

Murder mystery set in Oxford at the turn of the last century. It’s ten years out from ‘the event,’ and our MC Jem is provoked into dredging up the past. He wants to find out once and for all who murdered his friend. It was a decade ago, maybe he can finally put it to rest. Unfortunately, the pool of suspects are his best friends from university. But how could one of them be the killer?
I have read many of KJ Charles’ books and was curious and excited to read this mystery. If you’re not familiar, she’s known as a romance writer and this is a bit of a departure. I thought I might miss the romance, or perhaps I wouldn’t drop in as readily since I don’t often seek out this genre, but all of that was bologna because I loved every minute of Death in the Spires.
In between, around, and throughout the mystery, Charles brings to life the ecstasy and heartbreak of friendship. Ugh, did I need the flashbacks to my own young life and the making and breaking of trust where I least expected it? No, thanks so much. But it was quite effective. It was really good. It was great. I loved it.
A+ highly recommend.