★Caruso, Melissa. The Last Hour Between Worlds. Orbit. (The Echo Archives, Bk. 1). Nov. 2024. 432p. ISBN 9780316303477. pap. $19.99. FANTASY

On leave from the Guild of Hounds, Kembral Thorne is determined to enjoy her time away from her newborn while at Dona Marjorie Swift’s year-turning party. But when party guests start dying around her, Kem is drawn back into her work, determined to discover the killer. Her nemesis, Rika Nonesuch, is also searching for answers, and the two try to set aside their differences to uncover what’s going on. With every chime of the clock, they fall into an Echo, a layer of reality that gets more and more twisted each time they descend; a person could be lost here forever. She knows that no one has ever survived going too deep, but that may be the least of their problems when powerful figures play bloody games. It’s even worse when time resets to the start of the party, and no one remembers what has happened, except Kem. VERDICT Clever, empathetic characters, an unusual world, and a rapidly paced story that keeps readers guessing will delight fans of Caruso’s (The Ivory Tomb) and create new ones.