Some secrets are meant to stay buried

When Ropa Moyo discovered an occult underground library, she expected great things. She’s really into Edinburgh’s secret societies – but turns out they are less into her. So instead of getting paid to work magic, she’s had to accept a crummy unpaid internship. And her with bills to pay and a pet fox to feed.

Then her friend Priya offers her a job on the side. Priya works at Our Lady of Mysterious Maladies, a very specialized hospital, where a new illness is resisting magical and medical remedies alike. The first patient was a teenage boy, Max Wu, and his healers are baffled. If Ropa can solve the case, she might earn as she learns – and impress her mentor, Sir Callander.

Her sleuthing will lead her to a lost fortune, an avenging spirit and a secret buried deep in Scotland’s past. But how are they connected? Lives are at stake and Ropa is running out of time.

With her ghosttalking business drying up, Ropa accepts a position as intern to Sir Ian Callander only to find out it is an unpaid position. Then Priya hooks her up with the family of a patient to investigate the boy’s mysterious illness but that gets turned into part of her unpaid internship.  Finally she is hired to help a Canadian who is trying to get his hands on his family’s lost fortune, stolen apparently by the Royal Bank and the Society of Sceptical Enquirers; but the more she investigates, the more all the cases seem to be linked.

One of the bad guys from book one shows up again, this time claiming to be on Ropa’s side. There is an overall arc that seems to flow through both books but it is not yet clear who is ultimately going to turn out to be the good guys and who the bad guys are. We suspect that some members of the Society might not be as altruistic as they pretend to be. There is unexplained tension between Ropa’s grandmother and Sir Callander that hopefully will be explained or at least investigated by Ropa in future books.  

We learn more, but not nearly enough, about the monarchy ruling Scotland, small throwaway mentions that are slowly building a picture of a Scottish rebellion put down ruthlessly by an English King. We learn for sure that the Catastrophe is worldwide and not just a localized Scottish economic and environmental disaster, but we still don’t know exactly what led to the radical changes from life before the Catastrophe. While Ropa, her gran and sister watch familiar TV shows like Diagnosis Murder we also learn that magic has been an established normal for centuries. This alternate Ediburgh is fascinating and I want to know more. We are learning more about Ropa, Jomo and Priya as people but I still want to know more about Priya’s background. And Ropa’s grandmother who has a past that is being revealed in small hints that may well bring a big surprise in future book. The world building and character development is gripping. I am incredibly happy to know there are at least two more books scheduled for this series. Highly recommended. ~~ Stephanie L Bannon

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