The Silversmith's Puzzle is the fourth outing for Captain Jim & his lady wife Diana in a mystery series by Nev March. Released 13th May 2025 by Macmillan on their Minotaur imprint, it's 320 pages and available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links.
This is such a richly imagined and well written historical mystery series from the late Victorian era and has developed from strength to strength. This is probably the best of the lot thus far. The titular protagonist, Captain Jim Agnihotri, is a half English, half Indian officer and investigator who has married for love and he and his wife suffer socially because of their partnership. He deals with racism because of his upbringing and skin color as well as being an Englishman, and they're shunned by both his world and her own (high caste Raj era India).
The relationship between Jim and his wife Diana is refreshingly honest (and modern). She's intelligent and headstrong, if naive. Both of them have a distinct honesty that's refreshing to read, and they're genuinely fond of one another. The mystery is well constructed and the prose is nuanced and enjoyable. The action moves the plot along quickly and the denouement and resolution are satisfying and fair play. The language is squeaky clean and the violence is at "cozy historical novel" level. There is a lot of direct racism, but probably less than would honestly be historically accurate (which is good).
Four and a half stars. An amazingly well written follow-up. There are currently 4 books extant in the series. It would be an excellent choice for public library acquisition, home readers, or for a binge/buddy read.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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