I’ve never done a book review tour before but when Pan Macmillan, Tor gave me the opportunity to review the latest book in the Edinburgh Nights series by T.L. Huchu, one of my favourite series by one of my favourite authors I didn’t really feel like I could say no.
Point of fact my very first book review on this site was Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments, the second book in the series, and since then, I also went on to review The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle, so despite me, not having written a review on the page for a while, this felt like the perfect opportunity to get back to it. I first came to T.L. Huchu’s writing through Ben Aaronovitch’s recommendation with the very first of the Edinburgh Nights series The Library of the Dead, which started me waiting for each new installment.
So fanboy credentials revealed now, in some ways it feels like I’m more likely to give this a good review, and in others, it feels like I’m far more likely to try compare it to the previous books. The last book, The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle ended with the main character Ropa Moyo, leaving her previous role with Sir Callander who was the input here and then taking up a new role with Lord Samarasinghe, England’s Sorcerer Royal, and a man who very much feels like he has an agenda, and one that may not be in Ropa’s best interests.
This is the fourth book in the series, and when I was lucky enough to see Tendai talking about this series at WorldCon earlier this year and I think it was mentioned that this would be a series of five books. It certainly feels like this is leading towards what is going to be an epic finale. There’s a lot of plot in this book and I’m going try really hard not to put big spoilers in.
As in previous books relationships are very much at the heart of this story, and that’s Ropa’s relationships with her friends, her family and the people that she’s working with. This book also starts pulling together a lot of threads that have been hanging sometimes noticeably, sometimes not since the first book. We start to see elements going very going way back to that first book which start to make more sense – and in some ways the world building in this book in terms of the history of this version of Edinburgh is the biggest we’ve seen so far. For those who have been following the series, you will learn what the catastrophe was – this was something I didn’t actually like about the first book because I wanted to know all the history there and then, but as time went on I realised I was wrong and it didn’t matter, albeit at times it felt a little strange that people seemed to avoid talking about such an important thing.
Ropa’s, experience, and skills, as a ghostwalker have been growing from the first book. It’s interesting to see also how much of her choices in that area she feels are made because of the position of poverty that her family find themselves.
I think I can say the main protagonists in this are often the same people who were the main protagonists in The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle, and it is very much the next chapter in that story and it follows directly on minutes after that book ends.
I think in many way, this is actually been my favourite of the books, but possibly with a caveat – it wouldn’t be if I hadn’t read the previous books because I feel a lot of what this is doing is pulling together the threads that have been cleverly laid since very first book. Ropa, as a character is a lot of fun to spend time with. You can feel the legacy of her Zimbabwean and family past mixed with her streetsmart, helps to make her quite possibly a unique character in this kind of literature. As I said I don’t want to give away spoilers, but I feel like I can give away a few plot points that won’t ruin your reading of the book.
Relationships with her friends change with some becoming stronger and some potentially fragmenting in a way that I don’t think anyone could see coming. The history of her family comes very much to the fore and with that we learn more about her background and how she became the person she is, and how much of that is nature and how much of that was planned nurture. She also goes on the run. There is a seismic change at the Library of the Dead, and the fairy flag from Dunvegan Castle plays an important role and what happens next. Arniston house itself isn’t in the book that much, we visit the house a few times, but what happens there changes the events of the book and with it Roper life .
As I said, this is one of my favourite book series and this one didn’t disappoint. It really draws things together. It also starts to prepare me for the final book – something that I’m very sad about as I feel these characters could go on and on. It’s a great book which blends together fantasy, a slight dystopian future, but is also frequently funny. Whilst I’ll be very sad to see this series go with the next book I’m very excited to see what Tendai does next as I feel he is one of the great voices in British and Scottish fantasy today.
So in conclusion, if you have read the previous books, I would recommend that you get this as quickly as possible! If you haven’t read the previous books in the series, then please, please go and get them go on the journey and get to know these characters – I think you’ll love them – I did and this books is a worthy addition, massively growing the world we have come to love!
Thank you so much to the author, T.L. Huchu and Olivia-Savannah and the team at Tor Books for running this book tour and for giving me the chance to continue to follow Ropa’s adventures, and if you have any interest in this book, go back, get the Library of the Dead and start reading until you get to this one!
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