#BookReview: Murder mystery in a haunted castle

 The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle, by T. L. Huchu (Tor)

This is the third volume of T. L. Huchu’s wonderful “Edinburgh Nights” series. I love the protagonist, a feisty, resourceful slum kid, Ropa Moyo. In magic-imbued, dystopic post-apocalyptic Scotland, Ropa and her sister live with their grandmother, who is steeped in the ancient ritual magic of her African ancestors. Ropa’s magic is of a different sort: she can talk to ghosts. Ropa’s path out of abject poverty lies through the formal academy of Scottish magic. At the beginning of The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle, Ropa is struggling with an unpaid internship, doing scut work for an international magical conference at Dunvegan Castle on the Isle of Skye. It’s the perfect opportunity for her to make connections and further her career. That is, until a vital magical scroll goes missing, a librarian is murdered, and her mentor casts a force-field spell over the castle to prevent the culprit’s escape.

On one level, this is a classic Agatha Christie style murder mystery, with suspects galore confined in a castle. Political and personal frictions abound, everyone has an ax to grind—including the resident ghosts—and the characters and plot twists kept me turning the pages. On another, it’s a story about difficult choices, about whether Ropa will be being valued or manipulated as a pawn. One of the things I look for in a compelling protagonist, particularly a young one, is agency: how much resourcefulness does this person have, and how will they determine their own fate? Ropa may not have material wealth or status, but her other qualities, including her unerring sense of justice, more than compensate.

Middle books present challenges, as exemplified by the dreaded second book of a trilogy that falls flat. Lots of things happen but the dramatic shape doesn’t match the dynamic beginning or the climactic end. In this case, the book is a bridge between Ropa finding her place at the academy and the choices she makes at the end. We don’t know where those choices will lead; that’s for the next book. Seen as a bridge with a significant amount of lack of conclusion, Mystery works well. These shortcomings are less significant than they would be for a stand-alone book or even the second book in a series because readers who have been following Ropa’s journey have already fallen in love with her over the previous two books. I know that I did!

Not a stand-alone, but readers of the series will want to gobble up the next volume!