The Secret Chapter is the sixth installment in, frankly, one of the most enjoyable series out there. Author Genevieve Cogman carries over her delightful characters from prior books, but manages to keep things fresh with a little genre twist or rather emphasis. While her entire series really is a mash-up of genres, in the last two books she has framed each narrative on standard genre elements. The Mortal Word had a mystery/detective framework and The Secret Chapter is a heist story with a nod to some James Bond stereotypes.

Irene, librarian-extraordinaire, continues to be resourceful and more than capable of handling even the most desperate of situations. In this novel, she uncovers some information that may or may not be a factor in future narratives. However, what is certain is that there are more books in this series (at least eight at time of the writing of this review) and every single one of them is a gem.

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language: 1 religious exclamation; 11 mild obscenities.

Violence/Gore: Several threats throughout the book both spoken and implied, some at weapon-point; reference to violent events from prior books; individual fed to animals as an example and group of characters observe this; extended fight scene involving weapons, etc. with mention of blood and deaths, mostly non-graphic; various characters knocked unconscious at various points in the book; character strangles another (but not to point of death); duel to the death between two characters, with mention of blood; duel not to the death, but mention of splattering blood; attempted assassination (report of); physical fight in between a group of characters, injuries; brief fight scene involving knife, gun, throwing of chair, etc.; extended chase scene with destruction of property; character bleeds from nose when magic is over-extended; character deliberately cuts self in order to use blood to write; report that someone was tasered; attempt to kill someone; characters fight martial art style with descriptions; characters engage in conflict using magic; character hit by a bullet; character constrained by magic which clearly is painful.

Sex/Nudity: Flirting; innuendo; characters pose as a couple; understood by all that two characters are a couple and general implication is that they are intimate; man refers in passing to his husband.

Mature Subject Matter:

Theft, betrayal, politics, death.

Alcohol/Drug Use:

Adults drink alcohol and smoke in various social situations; characters sedated against their will.