Various Thoughts

A curious combination of police procedural and isekai (which eventually develops into a romance), Honor Raconteur‘s Case Files of Henri Davenforth series ends up remarkably entertaining for the most part.

Starting out being framed from Henri’s perspective, as time goes on more and more chapters are told from Jamie’s until by the ninth book (All in a Name) they’re more or less evenly split. While at times this can be a bit confusing it’s mostly a positive that introduces some welcome variety to what becomes a pretty standard story structure.

Each book generally has our protagonists running around for the first 75% or so chasing leads/clues that don’t really go anywhere, only to suddenly run across the antagonist kinda out of nowhere just before the end (sometimes literally, sometimes due to a spontaneous break in the case). So narrative isn’t really the strong point here. No, the character interactions are the main draw and it absolutely delivers on that front.

Only complaints would be Jamie’s constant pop culture references (I know people actually talk like that, but you’d think you’d tone it down after traveling to a different world where said culture doesn’t exist) and the rate of technological introduction speeding up in questionable directions within the later books. Why would you try to introduce modern TV to a fantasy-infused Victorian society? Like, that’s just pure demerits all the way down.