This novel by debuting Nicole Glover appears to be a standalone but it's apparently the beginning of a series called 'Murder and Magic' and that makes me happy, because I certainly want to read more. It's perhaps testament to the success of this book that it's going to become the beginning to a bigger story.

Glover is African American and this novel emphatically follows suit. It's set in Philadelphia during what was optimistically called the Reconstruction Era, soon after the Civil War was over, the slaves had been freed and black people were theoretically now equal to whites under the eyes of the law. Of course, the reality for those former slaves was rather different and how Glover addresses that is surely one of her biggest successes here, her characters enduring constant little obstacles as routine that just wouldn't have shown up for me because I'm white.

The leads are the conductors of the title, Hetty and Benjy Rhodes, which in this context means that they were escaped slaves who helped other slaves to escape too as conductors on the Underground Railroad. Of course, the war is over so they don't have to do that anymore, but their efforts and achievements in the era of slavery render them uncomfortable legends within the black community, many of whom were escapees who know that they wouldn't have made it without Hetty and Benjy's help. That gives them a particular stature in their community but it's not one that comes with perks beyond respect.

I should add here that Hetty and Benjy are husband and wife but only through circumstance. Everyone thought that they were married anyway, so they made it legal. Hetty is only starting to realise that she may actually be in love with her husband, though he may well have loved her all along. It's certainly an interesting dynamic that plays well with their commonalities and differences. Benjy is thoughtful and quiet, even though he's big and strong. Hetty is incisive but impetuous, able to keep her composure in trying circumstances but still be strongly affected behind them.

If this all sounds like a historical drama, even a mildly romantic one, well it is and it's a notable one too. However, it's also a mystery at heart, in fact a couple of them, one driving the story and a second being important to certain subplots. And it's a work of fantasy too, as this alternate but historically accurate past has magic in it and, while black magic is different from white magic, they aren't the terms that we know. They don't reflect morality in this book. White magic is simply magic used by white people, which is regarded as sorcery. Similarly, black magic is magic used by black people, which ties to constellations. We're not given any depth in why these are different, beyond tradition, or how they work, but they do.

Another of the book's great successes is how well these genres intermingle. For instance, while Hetty is a seamstress and Benjy a blacksmith, they're also a detective duo. I'd say amateur detectives, because it's not an advertised service that they provide and there's no sign above their door. However, they do potentially get paid for the work, so I guess they're professionals, merely on a less organised basis than the term might suggest. They're just known for doing it well, so people seek them out. Remember that they live in a world where everything is about as different from what it used to be as can comfortably be imagined and things are still settling down.

The mystery at the heart of the story is a murder mystery. The drunk found dead in an alley not far from Hetty and Benjy's house turns out to be Charlie Richardson, not only a friend of theirs but one of those slaves they helped to freedom in the north. He's also someone doing well in the Reconstruction Era and someone even looking to stand for office. Why he suddenly shows up dead is one question, but it's only one of many. Why does a respectable black man show up in an alley with a bottle in his hand? Of course, who stabbed him to death? And why is the cursed sigil of Ophiuchus, the serpent bearer, carved into his chest? As the local detectives de rigeur and notable magic users, it's up to Hetty and Benjy to figure the mysteries out, as the body count increases.

I enjoyed this book, just from the standpoint of entertainment, but I found it fascinating too. Glover is a clever writer, able to write a story that's fundamentally black in such a way that someone as white as me who isn't even American can read it and understand their situation. Sure, I have no connection to their situation because of very different heritage, but it was easy to see where I might fit within this story, if only I was in Philadelphia at the time. It was easy to see how my experience would be greatly different to Hetty and Benjy's simply because of my colour.

Put simply, this is one of the best depictions of privilege I've read, even if it's mostly shown through the absence rather than the presence of it. Being a white man, the cost of sending a telegram wouldn't be suddenly increased when I walked through the door. Being a white man, I would be able to dictate the terms of a service I was providing rather than be effectively forced into what a potential customer had in mind. Being a white man, I would have been able to use magic to protect the graves of my relatives from bodysnatchers. And, crucially, I wouldn't even have noticed my privilege in any of those instances. It would have been just how things were. Hetty, as a black woman, doesn't have that luxury.

So this succeeds as a historical drama. It's not a particularly overt romance, but it succeeds there too. I certainly felt that angle as a strong positive and I'm hardly a fan of romance novels. It succeeds well as a mystery, on the grounds that I didn't figure out whodunit until the reveal, though I did follow various telegraphed clues to think it might be someone else. It all made sense and nothing felt convoluted. If I could throw a negative into the mystery, it's that it's not phrased particularly as a mystery for readers to solve. The answer is always going to show up at some point, regardless what Hetty and Benjy do. The solving of the mystery isn't as important as what asking questions stirs up on a wider basis.

And, as a fantasy, this feels thoroughly grounded because it emphatically is, both in a period of history and within the internal logic. Glover didn't just add magic to an existing story, it's deeply embedded in the history and cultures she explores. She clearly gave the question of how to integrate magic systems (plural) into known history a lot of thought, right down to the level of how a people able to use magic in powerful ways could be enslaved. Sure, I'd have liked some explanation of how the magic works, but it's magnificently entwined into the period setting.

Maybe we'll get some answers in the next book, which apparently came out last November without me noticing. It's called ‘The Undertakers’ and it's not going to be the last in the series. ‘The Improvisers’ and ‘The Starseekers’ are listed on the author's website, though with no publication dates. ~~ Hal C F Astell 

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