"When a child goes missing in
Edinburgh's darkest streets, young Ropa investigates. She'll need to call on
Zimbabwean magic as well as her Scottish pragmatism to hunt down clues. But as
shadows lengthen, will the hunter become the hunted? Ropa dropped out of school
to become a ghostalker. Now she speaks to Edinburgh's dead, carrying messages
to the living. A girl's gotta earn a living, and it seems harmless enough.
Until, that is, the dead whisper that someone's bewitching children--leaving
them husks, empty of joy and life. It's on Ropa's patch, so she feels
honor-bound to investigate. But what she learns will change her world. She'll
dice with death (not part of her life plan...), discovering an occult library
and a taste for hidden magic. She'll also experience dark times. For Edinburgh
hides a wealth of secrets, and Ropa's gonna hunt them all down.”
Much of this book is a fun
ride, and you cannot help but love Ropa –even if she seems smarter than any 14
year-old should be. It’s set in contemporary times, but clearly a future that
has also gone through some changes. This Edinburgh is ruled by a King (with
people greeting each other with 'God save the king' and
'Long may he reign') and has a diverse cast of characters who would not be out
of place in a Grimm’s fairytales or the universe of Charles Dickens (with
magic). The book is dark, but filtered with some cynical humor that makes you
want to follow along.
Huchu
wisely keeps some of the external world building from overtaking what is essentially
a Scooby-Doo adventure –hopefully more of this will be explored in later tales, but there were times I wished he let on a bit more.
And it’s also fun to see how the Zimbabwe born, but Edinburgh raised writer mixes
his heritage with history of the Scottish city.
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