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Allusion is not Illusion
You'll pry my books off my cold, dead body. By the time you shift them all I'll be flat and dessicated.
Currently reading
Winter's Tales
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Already Dead
The Rings of Saturn
Lady Audley's Secret
Unequal Protection: How Corporations Became "People" - And How You Can Fight Back
The City, Not Long After
You Can Sketch: A Step-by-Step Guide for Absolute Beginners
Lonely Werewolf Girl
This later installment is somewhat at odds with the feel of the earlier books -- there is a strange and to me displeasing juxtaposition of more explicit nastiness (animal torture, human dismemberment, child abuse, unhealthy sexuality) with sudden farcical scenes of slapstick. Even more displeasing was the crude sexual (and usually sexist) jokes that seem to have largely displaced the more literary cleverness that characterized Crispin's earlier books. The mysteries themselves were convoluted and improbable, and was the bungling of the police. Fen, our amateur detective protagonist, does little detecting and disappears from the narrative for long stretches.
The saving grace of this book was the entertaining secondary characters, especially the Major and the Rector. This was especially evident in contrast with, for instance, book 8 of this series, where everyone was so unpleasant that I hardly cared who got murdered. Unfortunately, the author distaste for women was in full play here.
Since I did like The Moving Toyshop, I plan to go back and try some of the earlier books in the series, but will likely give the later installments a miss.