The Dark Archive – Genevieve Cogman

A mysterious archive. A powerful enemy. And a cunning plan.

Danger is part of the day job for a Librarian spy. So Irene’s hoping for a relaxing weekend. However, her jaunt to Guernsey proves no such thing. Instead of retrieving a rare book, she’s almost assassinated, Kai is poisoned and Vale barely escapes with his life. Then the attacks continue in London – targeting those connected with the Fae-dragon peace treaty.

Irene knows she must stop the plot before the treaty fails. Or someone dies. But when Irene and friends are trapped underground, in a secret archive, things don’t look so good. Then an old enemy demands vengeance, and a shocking secret is revealed. Can Irene really seize victory from chaos?

The Dark Archive sees the welcome return of our favourite librarian spy, her dragon companion and the great detective. Oh, and a new Fae apprentice. It’s book seven in the series, so regular readers know what they’re letting themselves in for – adventure, hijinks, magical libraries (the best kind) and a spot of peril.

Oh, so much peril.

Shouts came from behind them. Irene knew that symphony; it started with There they are and continued on to Stop them, with occasional gunshot obbligato.

If you’ve not come across these books before, book seven is probably the wrong place to start (ok, it’s definitely the wrong place to start) as there’s a lot going on here which requires the reader to be up to speed on the current state of play.

But you’ve read all the others, haven’t you? (if not, why on earth not? Get thee to a bookshop/library if you can).

Still here? Right. The action starts with Irene and Vale off to get their hands on a rare book (of course). This does not go smoothly, and someone tries (unsuccessfully, thank goodness) to blow them up. The game, as another famous detective would say, is afoot.

Reader, as you may have guessed, I’m a huge fan of these books. And gladly spent a couple of hours in the company of the gang as they face a variety of terrors – remote-controlled zombies, poisonings, some very unexpected foes, a secret underground hospital, a visit to a grand exhibition, and some very interesting revelations.

Just glorious fun. I’ve enjoyed all the books so far, but this is one of the best yet.

The Dark Archive by Genevieve Cogman is published by Pan and is out now. Many thanks to the publisher for the review copy.

Buy a copy from bookshop.org (affiliate link)