No man wants his future wife to interfere with his job, especially if he lives in Edwardian London and works to catch murderers. But Adelynn is seeing visions of these murders, and she can’t avoid getting involved. Jessica Sly’s The Promise of Deception blends murder mystery and historical fiction with a dash of the supernatural, with a compelling lively heroine and sharply drawn villain. The story weaves together personal turmoil and outward danger, steadily escalating as the murders strike nearer to home and grow more bizarre. Spiritual themes, especially forgiveness and redemption through Christ, naturally emerge from the conflict. At times readers may struggle to follow some character motivations, but will be captured by this magic-tinged murder mystery.

Best for: Fans of historical fiction, murder mysteries, and magical realism.

Discern: Several murders and corpse mutilations, descriptions of crime scenes and autopsies, physical fights and attacks resulting in serious injury, relationship issues between an engaged couple as well as a parent and child, deceit and mild violence, mild sexual content.