Tamsyn Muir’s short story The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex, part of the Locked Tomb series, is a prequel of sorts to the fantastic Gideon the Ninth, featuring the thirteen year-old incarnations of the Sixth’s House’s Camilla Hect and Palamides Sextus. When the study of a long-dead Library tutor (the brilliantly-named Doctor Donald Sex) is finally reopened, 460 years after his death, Camilla and Palamides are among the lucky few to examine the dusty, intriguing old office. What they find within reveals an unexpected locked-room mystery, and while their elders proceed to trawl through academic bureaucracy the two youngsters set about unravelling the puzzle themselves.
Told with Muir’s characteristically dense but rewarding prose, despite its brevity this is packed with texture, slightly opaque yet utterly intriguing world building, and lashings of black humour. Where Gideon was pure snark, Camilla and Palamides have more of a youthful playfulness to them, although as this is told from Camilla’s perspective looking back on her youth there’s a slight tinge of sadness as well. It might be somewhat impenetrable to a reader new to the series, but for anyone familiar with these characters and their world it’s a wonderful reminder of just how rich and rewarding this series is.
Check out my review of Gideon the Ninth by the same author.
The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex is currently available for free via this link.