The Conductors
The Murder and Magic series, Book 1
Nicole Glover
Harper Voyager
Fiction, Fantasy/Historical Fiction/Mystery
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Years before the Civil War, slave girl Hetty and her sister Esther made a risky run for freedom... but only Hetty made it away. Along with Benjy, another escaped slave, she became a Conductor leading other slaves to safety, pitting celestial magic against White sorcery. Under their code names Sparrow and Finch, they garnered a larger than life reputation for their exploits, and for never leaving a soul behind whom they set out to guide to safety. But, though Hetty followed any whiff of a lead and got herself into numerous dangerous spots, she never stopped looking for Esther.
Years after the end of the war, Hetty and Benjy Rhodes have settled in Philadelphia's Seventh Ward and are building a new life, but their reputation lingers. Any time there's trouble, the people know to ask for the couple, who never met a mystery they couldn't best. When a former friend turns up dead in an alley, marked with a cursed star sigil, it's pretty clear that the murder is a warning... but a warning to whom? And who would want him dead? When more bodies turn up and every question they ask only leading to more puzzles, everyone becomes a suspect. If Hetty and Benjy can't unravel the mystery soon, the next bodies in Philadelphia's streets may be their own.
REVIEW: The Conductors melds elements of murder mysteries, Civil War and Reconstruction conflicts, and culturally diverse magical traditions to create an intriguing story populated with interesting characters, each of them scarred in various ways by slavery but not always in ways that unite them. Indeed, friction between those who want to pretend the past never happened and those still dealing with the experience, even seeking out those lost over the years of bondage, creates both trouble and suspects, not to mention the gap between former slaves and those born free in Philadelphia. There are even a few who blame Conductors like Hetty and Benjy for making things worse on those left behind. The addition of various forms of magic only makes things worse; it is still illegal to teach colored people sorcery, while Whites struggle to grasp the power and potential "primal" magics worked by non-white peoples, celestial magics and root magics and other traditions. Both magic and reason are brought to bear upon the mystery itself, which unfolds through various twists and turns that occasionally grew tangled. Interludes flash back to Hetty and Benjy's exploits during the war, the formation of a bond that only belatedly blossoms into actual love, for all that they married years ago; coming from backgrounds where marriages were too often more about White masters arranging for breeding fresh slaves (and where those with powers like Hetty and Benjy were considered too "dangerous" to propagate), it's understandable that they would come at the subject from somewhat wary perspectives, though it does take Hetty a little too long to figure out that her feelings have shifted toward her friend and partner. There's also a subplot about Hetty's ongoing search for Esther. It all builds up to a decently satisfactory and exciting conclusion, and the setup for further investigations by the Rhodes couple. Hetty and Benjy and their team of friends and allies prove to be a solid crime-solving force, the sort that would probably make a decent streaming series if someone were to do it right.
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