The books of Katherine Addison:

I discovered Katherine Addison this year, much to my delight. Her writing is beautiful and elegiac. The alternate universes she creates are rich and complex and a little bit mysterious (in a good way). Her characters are complex and thoughtful. I first read the Goblin Emperor, which is a gorgeous book, largely about court politics in an alternate world populated by elves and goblins. Subsequent books set in the same world feature an elf who solves mysteries in his role as witness for the dead. The Angel of the Crows is set in a steampunk London where vampires and angels and hellhounds exist alongside humans. It features many characters inspired by or familiar to fans of Victorian London crime fiction (Sherlock/Watson/Moriarty/the Baker Street Irregulars and Jack the Ripper) and a lot of plot twists!