The Affair of the Mysterious Letter

I swear every chapter of this could have been a full book on its own. The title describes the grand vision, but the details make it work. For example Shaharazade Haas' and John Wyndham's (the initials give away their roles) trip to an alternate dimension with definite 1984 vibes, except instead of Big Brother, there's a mind-warping demon-king who is mostly glimpsed in dreams. Haas is deliciously anarchic while Wyndham is adorably prudish yet nonjudgmental. His narration is frequently hilarious and also touching at times. It is a bit pompous and overwrought, but that fits with his character.

Everyone is gay and it's no big deal--the mystery our MCs are trying to solve involves the fate of an engagement between two women, whose main struggle is not whether society will accept their orientation, but whether their relationship will survive murder attempts by exes and/or the stultifying confines of a marriage kept within the bounds of merchant respectability.

I said "No complaints" in my comment upon finishing the book, but that's not quite true: I wish there were sequels. I suppose I'll just have to keep reading the adventures of Kate Kane, Paranormal Investigator.

I wanted to love this book sooooo much. A trans protagonist, who is handled well, and it's not a book all about him being trans. A fun, quirky cthulu-y spin on sherlock holmes. A world where bisexuality is totally normative, with fun, quirky twists on gender norms. A protagonist who is both outcast from his home, but also deeply lives their values, and is adorably appalled by the mores of the society he finds himself in. At first, I loved it.
And yet, as I got further, I just found myself slowing down and uninterested. I think partly, I'm actually really not a mystery fan. But I just couldn't stay interested, sadly.