Closer: Detective Lynx Wu Short Story

by Iris Kayan

Sutyu Lam the Magic Thief is back, and this time, she's here to steal Lynx.

When a fake ransom note sends Lynx on a wild chase through London on New Year's Eve, every clue leads him closer to the one person he can never catch—and can't seem to let go.

40 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 26, 2025

Reviews

[Tysha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this short story, which is set after the events of When the Mask Slips.

My initial thought after reading the ransom note was "oh no, not again", and it led to Detective Wu being sent on a quest for clues in a futuristic London, the first clue being toast. "... what sort of deranged idiot would be obsessed with toast?" Hey, call me out why don't you! 🤣

I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but I absolutely loved the twist at the end, and I'm glad my favourite character made an appearance 💕

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe 3.5 stars would be more accurate - I’ll make it 4 because I’m pretty sure it’s me and the fact that I had way too little sleep last night before reading this at lunch today. It opened on a similar emotional note to the novel it follows, but the anxiety rapidly dropped and turned to a bit of Christmas wonder, and sweet things happened. I wouldn’t say there was closure to anything from the previous book…more like just a bit of continuation.

Spoilery: I liked the bits with Lynx’s mother. I was sort of disappointed to realize Lynx hadn’t truly made any changes to his behavior with regard to Fox especially after the last book - did he learn nothing??? And the glimpse of insight into Fox’s character and his hero worship of his big brother made my heart hurt for him. While I definitely wanted to see Sutyu, and was happy to have her show up, I did think it very odd that Fox was so happy to see Lynx, and then just immediately disappears with women he doesn’t know at a bar without even saying goodbye - I felt like that happened just to allow Sutyu to appear, and honestly, it didn’t make much sense. I can’t decide how I feel about Sutyu having no desire to change her behavior in any way…it did answer a question I didn’t realize I’d had about her, and kind of allows me to let her go with a feeling of “resolved” in terms of a potential relationship between her and Lynx because without any change on her part, it could never happen. Of course without any change on his part, it would never happen anyway because he can’t ever seem to make time for the ones he loves the best.

[Lorna Bromwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Detective Lynx Wu receives a christmas cutout ransom note demanding a payment for his brother's life. When he tries ringing Fox, the kidknapper answers and gives him a trail of cryptic clues to follow with a deadline of only 24 hours to solve them. Who or what is waiting at the end of the trail?

This was such a cute short story, set in a futuristic London on New Years Eve 2531. It has just enough festive elements to make it a christmas read but not overly festive, that you can't read it any other time of the year. I loved how light-hearted it was, with comedic elements but cleverly written to draw you into the mystery of the kidknapper.

Themes
🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒Family 🎄Festive Elements ❔️Mystery
✨️Magic ❤️‍🩹Yearning 🐉Asian Representation

With thanks to the author for access to this ebook

[Shelves_by_sim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a fun little short story. I loved the mystery part of it and the ending was so sweet and wholesome, I cannot wait for more of this story!

[Ropes.and.rides.books · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a cute short story and tugged on my romantic heart strings 🥰

[Jennica Dotson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Utterly delightful epilogue to "When the Mask Slips."

[Ashley Hobsonreads · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a nice little holiday novella. The setting was a bit jarring to start with but it was a simple little read.