There is no breaking the hold Andrea Penrose has on me. Murder at Kensington Palace, third novel in the Wrexford and Sloane Mystery Series, throws a hefty punch with its intense pressure on the characters, its waltz into more fields of intellect and intrigue, and its tension ad pacing that skip along hand in hand, slowly switching into a light jog before running at you full force leaving you gasping.

I’ll start by saying that I felt for Charlotte during this whole novel. That poor girl can’t catch a break. With all the unanswered feelings and thoughts from the previous books, here she is getting sucker-punched by this new case and the time pressure is enormous. Not to mention the pressure she puts on herself to do something that she likely isn’t ready for but feels she must in order to find answers. It opens up a whole new realm of possibilities and tension points which are great for the stories to come, and I do know that it doesn’t negate from any of the resources they have, but I do wish there was maybe one more book were there was a hefty amount of what I have grown to call “dirty London” involved.

The new characters we are introduced to are definitely able to hold there own and although one such future has already been drawn up between two characters, I am excited to see how things proceed and expand in further books. Cordelia is a force of nature and I must commend her spirit and intellect. One thing I did pick up on in my print of this book which made me laugh is a little typo with names. A friendly P.S.A. – when you have two characters with similar names, whether it’s the sound or the first letter of their name, do make sure that the wrong name isn’t used at a moment of high tension, especially when that character is nowhere near these other characters. It throws the tension and pacing off just a tad.

Finally, we get some Hawk appreciation! Little Hawk gets to draw and talk about plants and the natural world. He’s so sweet, and Raven is too for how he treats Hawk in these brief moments of brilliance. The two Weasels are getting a great character development and are able to showcase their talents which makes for some darling quotes and interactions. Tyler’s soft spot for Raven is so sweet.

This book has cemented my decision to keep this series on my shelves. I was debating whether or not to sell them as there’s an issue with sourcing the right size print for the fifth and sixth book in my area. Rest assured, I will most certainly be keeping hold of this series (and not just because my favourite series to date is $40 a book and there’s no way I can fund that endeavour). I’m so happy I bought these because this series truly serves as an outline and inspiration for a great many projects brewing in my brain.