The Lamplight Murders by Morgan Stang — Immensely fun murder mysteries in a fantasy/steampunk setting

I highly recommend The Lamplight Murder series by Morgan Stang, the first book being Murder at Spindle Manor. Currently there are three released

I've read many, many murder mysteries and I've found a lot of the ones oft recommended on this sub to be lacking (Thursday Murder Club, Everyone in my Family Has Killed Someone, etc). On a whim I discovered this series, and I find it both familiar and refreshing

The series follows a Hunter named Isabeau who is tasked with finding all manner of supernatural creatures, the first book being a creature similar to the Thing (from the John Carpenter movie of the same name)

Morgan Stang borrows from classic authors like Agatha Christie and the fantasy world allows for a really diverse cast of characters, as well as many fun reveals that wouldn't be possible in a grounded setting. Despite the supernatural elements, everything follows an internal set of rules and proper fairplay mystery storytelling

What really sets this series apart is that while each book has its central closed circle mystery, they are not standalone. Each book spoils the previous entries, and there are overarching mysteries about the world of Lamplight that carry over as unresolved narrative threads. The third and latest book is also the best one, in my opinion

But the best thing about these books is that they're just massively fun. They're page-turners, and you can tell the author just bleeds a sincere love for the murder mystery genre and the characters she's writing

Also, the series has legitimately great LGBT representation if that matters to you

The series has flown under the radar (the latest entry having less than 1000 ratings on goodreads) and I think the author deserves far more attention. Hoping this post convinces a few others to give the series a shot!