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At the start of book 2 of the Edinburgh Nights series, young Ropa Moyo thinks she’s got a big break with an apprenticeship at the Society of Sceptical Enquirers, working directly with Sir Callander, Scotland’s top magician. But in the opening scene, her apprenticeship is downgraded to an unpaid internship. The big shots who work highly regarded “scientific magic” in this culture see this as a role with honor and opportunity–Callander has not taken an intern in many years–but Ropa is not exactly a member of that rank of society. She and her Gran and little sister Izwi live in a slum, in poverty, and Ropa is their sole wage earner. She cannot afford “unpaid.” (Race is not a very ‘forward’ issue in these books, but Ropa’s family is originally from Zimbabwe, and those roots influence the style of magic she’s learned from her Gran and which puts her a bit at odds with the establishment.)

Luckily, her buddy Priya has the lead on a side job: figuring out the nature of illness for a young patient at Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments. And, because Ropa is resourceful and always hustling, another mystery presents itself as well, one that might actually come with a serious paycheck. (Our protagonist is always worried about medications and medical care for Gran, and schooling for the precocious Izwi.) Chasing one puzzle and another, trying to impress the society and keep her family afloat, hard-working Ropa alternates between hopefulness and despair. Interestingly – and in a departure, as far as my memory serves, from The Library of the Dead – the case(s) here are tangled up with Scottish history and old wrongs.

Ropa’s unmistakable, unforgettable narrative voice is a big part of the charm to these novels. She offers a mix of a sort of classic, hard-boiled detective’s cynicism with a teenaged variety of same, and a youthful (not quite naïve) optimism, with both sardonic wit and earnest love for her family and friends. There is significant slang to season that combination to boot. I’d recognize Ropa anywhere, and although I have to look up the odd word, I’m always stimulated, intrigued, and entertained.

I hope it goes without saying that I’m all in for book 3 of this trilogy.

Filed under: book reviews | Tagged: dystopia, librarians, mystery, speculative fiction |