The Devil in Oxford

 Book 16 of my 2026 Reading Challenge

read from January 25 - 30

The Devil in Oxford

by Jess Armstrong

published 2025

3 stars

After reading the first two books in this series after seeing them while browsing at the library, I sought this third one out to read shortly after.  Now I'm reminded why I don't read new books very often...I now have to wait to see if/when there will be a continuation of the series.  The good news is this didn't end on too much of a cliffhanger.  In all 3 books the main mystery of each book was solved in that book and the continuing questions are from the characters' personal relationships and lives.

For this particular book, I didn't like the mystery as much.  Characters withholding information made it longer and muddier than it needed to be and I didn't fully understand the ending; lots of moving pieces had to come together for it to work out the way it did and there were too many coincidences.  This felt less like detective work and more like 'right place right time' (or 'wrong place wrong time' depending on which character you were).

Quote from the Book

"A sense of unease settled in my chest....Not that I had any reason to be unnerved - only a murderer on the loose, multiple people following me, hallucinations of spectral dogs, and I'd accidentally fallen in love with a man I'd utterly rejected. Truly, my life was going precisely to plan."

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Ways This Book Met my 2026 Reading Goals:

- 16th book read in 2026 (my goal is 100)

- Title starting with 'D' (I'm doing an A-Z title challenge)