Our favorite steampunk detectives are back in George Mann’s The Osiris Ritual. First introduced in The Affinity Bridge, Sir Maurice Newbury and his assistant Veronica Hobbes are back in the late Victorian age, where Victoria survives due to a steampunk version of an iron lung. The book does a good job building on the excitement for Egyptian artifacts (set only a couple decades before the King Tut discovery excites the world) which makes it feel like it fits into history well. So, let’s see what Newbury and Hobbes are up to.

The book starts with 3 separate storylines which merge together by the end. A young reporter is excited to be covering the unwrapping of a newly discovered Egyptian mummy. It’s interested to people because it was found in an hidden location and the decorations look different than most other mummys. As the mummy is unwrapped (literally), it scares off people as it looks like the person was mummified alive.

Meanwhile Hobbes is investigating a series of missing women who were all last seen volunteering at a traveling magic show. Hobbes wants Newbury to help, but with the tasks he has from the crown, she is being forced to put herself into more danger than either would like her to be

At the same time, Newbury is put on the trail of an ex agent of the crown. Newbury starts off just thinking he is meeting an undercover agent who is coming in on the train. He gets perplexed why he is asked to do this task and why the agent is coming in via train. But when the agent isn’t on the train, but a horrible decaying smell is there, Newbury is pulled into an investigation that ties all the threads together while bringing up some past issues.

Overall, the book is quick and fun. It’s not a great book, but Mann moves it along quickly and easily. There are some issues left unresolved (to be addressed in the next book The Immorality Engine out in September) around the relationship between the two main characters. And when Newbury finds out a secret of Hobbes at the end of the book, the relationship might change. I enjoyed the book and it was  a quick read. But the mystery was fairly disposable and predictable. This was more of a chase than a mystery. If you’re looking for something quick and easy to read than this is a good choice, as long as you don’t expect too much. Recommended