2018/40: Strong Poison -- Dorothy L. Sayers

2018/40: Strong Poison -- Dorothy L. Sayers

The inherited inhibitions of twenty civilised centuries tied one hand and foot in bonds of ridicule. What if he did smash the mirror? Nothing would happen. Bunter would come in, unmoved and unsurprised, would sweep up the débris in a dust-pan, would prescribe a hot bath and massage. And next day a new mirror would be ordered, because people would come in and ask questions, and civilly regret the accidental damage to the old one. And Harriet Vane would still be hanged, just the same. [p. 176]

In which Lord Peter Wimsey meets the woman he is determined to marry, who -- inconveniently -- happens to be on trial for the murder of her lover.
( no spoilers )

2018/41: Salt Magic, Skin Magic -- Lee Welch

2018/41: Salt Magic, Skin Magic -- Lee Welch

John knew where he was with iron, or salt, or a sulky furnace. He knew where he was with his sigils and herbs. But he was trained for industry, for the painstaking preparations and day-to-day drudgery of factory magic. And now he was caught in a morass of mystery and magic and lust, and he was out of his depth. [loc. 1972]

Soren Dezombrey, Lord Thornby, is a prisoner in his own home -- or, to be accurate, in his family's ancestral seat, a remote hall on the Yorkshire moors, which his father has forbidden him to leave. Thornby is greatly inclined to ignore his father's wishes and run back to London, where he had been leading a pleasant and vaguely scandalous existence. But something intangible prevents him from crossing the boundary of his father's land. And, adding insult to injury, there's a new visitor at the Hall: magician John Blake, sent to investigate rumours that Thornby's exerting a malign influence on his young stepmother.( non-spoilery )