annieb123
Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.
Heir of Uncertain Magic is the second Whimbrel House historical paranormal mystery by Charlie N. Holmberg. Released 11th April 2023 by Amazon on their 47North imprint, it's 304 pages and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book is currently included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free. The first book in the series, Keeper of Enchanted Rooms, is also currently available on KU.
This is a very well written ensemble cast character driven mystery/fantasy with an engaging bunch of protagonists and a seamless world-building magic system. The characters are well rendered and believable within the framework of a paranormal fantasy. It's a historical mystery, set in the early Victorian period and although it's not at all derivative (and a different time period altogether) it fits in the same general shelf as Stross' Laundry Files, and Stroud's Bartimaeus.
The agency is filled with the sort of bureaucrats that readers love to hate: bumbling, incompetent, completely malign or a combination. Protagonist Hulda is efficient and admirably restrained, but not about to take being sidelined without a fight. Her foil, Merritt is the homeowner of a formerly magical house for whom Hulda was previously employed (book 1) as housekeeper and factotum. The author has an admirable eye for detail and even the secondary and tertiary characters are well fleshed out and add important detail to the story.
Four stars. It's not a fluffy cozy, there are some hard edged descriptions here, including the magical abuse of a child, admittedly currently inhabiting a dog's body. There are also some really really over the top silly departmental acronyms which yanked me out of the story, BIKER and LIKER to name a couple.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.