The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal

I love almost everything K.J. Charles writes, but I was a little disappointed in this one. The stories were interesting but too short to be deeply involving, and Robert Caldwell's self-effacing first person POV left Simon Fexinal too much of a cipher to understand his appeal. Worth the price of the book, however, for emotionally gripping “The Writing on the Wall,” which explained how the metal cartouche came to be embedded in Robert's hand (thorough readers will remember first encountering that object in the the crossover Whyborne & Griffin short story “Remnant” by K.J. Charles and Jordan L. Hawk). I don't regret buying or reading The Secret Casebook, but Robert and Simon aren't as memorable a couple as Charles' other MCs, namely Lucien Crane and Stephen Day from the Magpie series.