I received a complimentary audiobook copy of "A Nest of Vipers" from the narrator Jake Urry in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.

Similar to how we began listening to A Looming of Vultures, our entrance into A Nest of Vipers is inclusive of the animal kingdom - where animals who are generally unseen and non-important to other stories, take a more central focus due to the overlays of the darker elements rooting themselves from the background of this world into the foreground of where we, as readers, need to understand the malice seeking to insinuate itself into the lives of these dearly unsuspecting persons we’re about to meet.

Subterfuge ought to be expected but it is still a rather telling story how Storry inserts us through his villain’s perspective long before he allows us to seek out a person whose actions are not as darkly lit against their fellow neighbours. In other words, he wants you to see the Darkness of this world because by all other accounts, it is a world torn by war and yet, consistently attempting to re-acquire a peaceful tranquility of calm. This isn't a world where you can understand it without the layers being explained - there is a lot of movable parts to the back-layers of what is trucking through the series. Like most world's - the order of power and the issues of power are centered against the crimes of the hour which are wrecking havoc and causing duress with the citizens.

As the story peers into the Emporium - you can observe household items in the eerie inky darkness - the kind of general store you’d expect to find in the more remote sections of New England. Similar to a camera re-positioning itself, you move outside the store and enter into cobbled streets and alleys - wherein we observe the creatures of the night (ie. rats) who creep round to savage what they can from the rubbish left behind; pausing only to see who has disturbed their nightly feasting. Someone was somewhere they ought not to be - they had disturbed the rhythm of the night; seeking to do what they will but against the laws of this land. Sadly one of the rats learnt a hard lesson about stepping away from the colony which coincidentally is the same scene where we learnt about the ‘vipers’ who are ‘nesting’ nearby.

When the Barron (Rudy) re-enters the story-line a shiver went through me as this bloke rankles me something awful! He has such a slimy character - where he has no morals and check-points within his conscience; acting for his singular gains and doesn’t care a whit about what he takes from others if it serves his own means a positive return. His manservant Willie (Wilhem) struggles with his lack of morality but also, the fact he must realise his employer is too far gone to be rehabilitated. Theirs is a unique dance between the moral rights of others and the indifference towards any sort of moral code in which to live by - whilst for the second time, I questioned why Willie staid in such close quarters of the Barron. Irregardless of what he felt the Barron had over him - you’d just like to see him gain a bit more backbone and step off - make his own way in life and live outside the Barron’s shadow where only deceit and ill will can come from his activities!

There are two distinctively unique populations in this world: Ruritania and Germania - both of whom are at war and odds with one another - wherein we are finding how hard deep the convictions of those who would conspire to keep them justifiably separated by this war would go towards proving their right to keep the peace at an imbalance and automatically cancelling a way to seek a truce of peace. This is the heart of the series - what is is truly happening behind the thefts and the solitary acts of the few where the rest of the world has been held captive by those who would rather conspire to ensure war than to pave the path towards resolution.

And, yet, being a novel by Storry - there are delightful bouts of irony - when you find a master thief is overcome by boredom whilst feeling motivated to steal whichever item they deem worthy of being heisted under the cover of not just the night but the disguise of whom is trolling the streets when all others are abed. They have a keen mind for organising their time and exploits but somewhere in the murk and cloyingly simplistic executions of those plans - they find themselves a bit wanton for complications. In that, you have to chuckle - for what is more ironic than a bored thief?

The character who took me the most by surprise this time round was the Constable - as Constable Bower’s investigation was quite intriguing on different levels especially as he looked into the individual victims and the victimology of their crime scenes which became the backbone focus of A Nest of Vipers countering to the secondary plotting of whom the Ruritanian roguish thief is and what motivates his antics in this seemingly peaceful world which prefers to be kept at war.

The character I genuinely felt was given the shaft in this installment is Willie - he struggles so hard to do what is right by the Barron whilst also being a good servant in respect of his position and job. Yet, whenever he strove to find a way to have some downtime fun - where he could just be himself, be amongst a mate and drink a pint, he found himself unprepared for revelations which came in the final chapters - the kind of revelations that can shatter a person to their core and leave an indefinite mark on their soul. You feel for Willie, because despite all his own faults, he always has striven to do what is right and yet, he mistook one bit of cardinal advice if it had ever been given to him - betrayal is best served by those you already trust.

Similar to the ending of A Looming of Vultures - you're left with more questions than answers - the most confounding aspect of this ending though which rankled quite a heap is that you are so dearly close to understanding the conspirators identities and yet, Storry puts the brakes on from you gaining too much information too soon! The only thing he felt you ought to have been given in the end of this installment is finding poetic justice for the vipers which effectively re-bridges the vultures into the foreground of the story-line. He doesn't leave you any loose ends - if you think you've found one, you've just found the future tangent of focus in a new installment yet to be heard. And, that in of itself is the beauty of the series - you have to shift through the installments one by one, root out the clues, hug close to characters who test your patience (ie. the Barron) and let Storry tell you a story only he can conceive of whilst only Urry can perform it on this caliber of a performance to entreat you further into Storry's vision!

// This is a quotation of my full review originally shared via jorielovesastory.com