The Album of Dr. Moreau

Way better than I expected it to be! I picked this as a short silly book to breeze through as something of a palette cleanser between serious books, but dang, I got so wrapped up in this, I just couldn't stop talking about it.
It nails the murder mystery sensation of making you suspect every single suspect and getting to the reveal having no idea whodunnit, not to mention having a great multidimensional detective with a brilliant backstory. The sci-fi element is really intriguing and while it his out in the background for most of the book, it was quite a strong story in itself. And it was really touching too. Sam Miller's blurb on the cover was really on point: by the end of the book, I was really emotionally tied to these half-animal young men in a way I definitely did not see coming. Every character in this story is very well developed. And how it does all this in such a short story is a bit of magic in itself.
Oh and the animal puns were horrible in the absolute best way. Well done, Mr. Gregory!