A Death at the Dionysus Club

By: Melissa Scott, Amy Griswold

Narrated by: Michael Ferraiuolo

In the sequel to Lambda Literary Award-winning Death by Silver, metaphysician Ned Mathey and private detective Julian Lynes again challenge magical and murderous threats in a Victorian London not quite the city in our history books.

Mathey is recruited by Scotland Yard to assist the new Metaphysical Crimes Squad in the case of a literally heartless corpse. Mathey soon discovers that the magic used to rob the man of his heart and life does not conform to the laws of modern metaphysics and then a second victim turns up. Meanwhile, a minor poet hires Lynes to track down and stop the blackmailer threatening to reveal him as the pseudonymous author of popular romances. When another target of the same blackmailer, a friend of Mathey's assistant Miss Frost, appeals for aid, Lynes and Mathey begin to suspect murders and blackmail are connected.

Digging deep into the clandestine worlds of lawless antique magic and the gay demimonde, Mathey and Lynes must uncover the source and nature of a heart-stealing supernatural creature before it can kill them too, even as they face the scandal of exposing themselves as sodomites in order to close the case.

©2014 Melissa Scott & Amy Griswold (P)2015 Melissa Scott & Amy Griswold

Much better narration than book one

Any additional comments?

I didn’t finish book one due to a really bad narration edits, but was able to follow the plot, and magic, in this just fine, and I still felt like I knew the MCs quite well at the end.
Will get the ebook version of book one someday.

Fantastic

This was even better than Death By Silver, the first book in this series by Melissa Scott and Amy Griswold. Ned and Julian are almost living together and learning more about each other. There's a few times it's hard for Ned to accept Julian's numerous albeit previous affairs with men in the Dionysus Club, and Julian is reminded again and again how attractive Ned is to other men and how Ned found his way in the hidden homosexual world in London before he reunited with Julian. The past becomes nearly fatal when men from Ned and Julian's college past create a magical creature that kills by removing the human heart. Scotland Yard gets involved in when the strange deaths accumulate, and Ned and Julian find their hidden world where MM relationships can survive threatened by exposure. Adding to the stress of losing everything they love about living together in London, their lives are in danger when the focus of the deadly cursed creature is turned on them. The metaphysical elements are imaginative and lend an academic aspect to the story.
Michael Ferraiuolo's narration is better than the narrator in the first book. He differentiates voices well.

An absolute cracking period murder mystery

A more worthy sequel to "Death by Silver" one could not imagine. Our two favorite sleuths are at it again with an even more intriguing case. Many of the same beloved characters return including the more than capable Ms. Frost and Inspector Hatton, now head of the newly formed metaphysical crimes squad. Our two gents will need all their wits and friends about them as they race against time to save their beloved London and even themselves from an evil terror conjured from unscrupulous and decidedly unsavory unsanctioned spell.
The narration was spot on, voicing characters so well I thought I was listening to a whole cast of actors. I highly recommend this Audible version of "Death at the Dionysus Club".
N.B. Until some substantial changes are made, I sadly must advise those listeners to avoid the first Audible book in this series, but do heartily suggest they read "Death by Silver"