Previous book here (I can't find the review of it, annoyingly).
I bought this book in September 2023 and I just finished the book nearly a year later. How sad is that for a speed reader? This is because the book is SUPER HUGE to carry around and most of the time I'm on the go, so I can’t haul a 670-ish page hardback around in my purse. I finally forced myself to read it at work during lunch. It felt super long to read even for ME, but was interesting.
This book is essentially two books in one and I’m not sure why they’re combined together. I thought reading this they would come together at the end, but they really don’t. There’s one slight connection* between the stories and both would have been a fine 300-ish page novel on their own, one being the distant sequel to the other.
(all stars follow up below the spoiler space)
Plot A is during WWII, when Checquy operatives Bridget, Pamela and Usha get themselves into A Bit Of An Incident when Pamela can’t resist going after a superpowered Nazi, he crashes, and they have to track him down. I note that despite having an agency of superpowered people, the Checquy aren’t permitted to join the war effort, and it’s deduced that Pamela knew why this was and it perhaps made her lose her shit a bit** (see spoiler space). The ladies try to clean up this mess on their own time. Bridget, who gets the most focus of the three, does double duty when she’s assigned to go on a mission with young Henry Wattleman* (Lord of the Checquy in contemporary timeline), who’s a handsome lech. The two are assigned to track down a gang who are selling off superpowered objects that are killing people, and that’s quite an in-depth plot. I did like Tillie the gang leader, though, she’s got spice. Bridget also has a sweet boyfriend, Gerald, who predictably is about to go off to war soon. I root for them even though well, it’s war and who knows. While I enjoyed reading this, these plots got a bit convoluted (they do come together more eventually) and it was hard to remember all the details over well, a long time of reading it.
Plot B is contemporary and follows Lyn Binns, a mom/librarian who suddenly manifests electrical powers, gets caught at it, and has to join the Checquy and go to their school while they evaluate her powers and make sure she learns how to handle them. All of that is very pleasant under the weird circumstances, albeit she is forced to fake a weird disease and go literally back to school with curious teens. Once she’s graduated, she gets moved into working for the Checquy reviewing weird cases that might be supernatural manifestation. Then Lyn finds a case where gang members are dying of electrical incidents…just like her powers. And Lyn has a very distinctive electrical signature that that absolutely will identify her as the perp. Except she knows she didn’t do it. Knowing full well that at best the Checquy will lock her up immediately if this is discovered ***, Lyn goes on the run, needing to find who did it and prove her innocence. I was reminded of The Rook in which Myfanvy I had set up a possible escape route for her future self–my impression from reading that was that it was extremely difficult/fatal to run from the Checquy. Lyn does pull it off plausibly, albeit she has a few near-catching moments, but I did wonder how doable it all was. Lyn’s husband is a cop so she had more of an idea as to how to do it, at least. And while the eventual villain is pretty one-note, I did really enjoy Lyn finding out how this was happening.**** and the potential for her personally in the future. Her plot was easier to follow, even if it takes a while, for good reason, to take off.
In other news, I enjoy the very weird side stories of the Checquy (dueling, pregnant men!) that the author loves to get into for a bunch of pages, but sometimes they derail for so long even I, who loves crazy exposition, is all "hey, can we tie it back to the story/circle back?" It takes this author awhile.
I liked all of the characters (rooting for Bridget and Gerald!), even naked horny Henry. I felt for Lyn both having to start a new life, then being on the run (justified), and then having more surprises turn up..I miss Myfanwy (who had a cameo). I realize it might be hard for the author to tie her into everything now that her main life problem has been...grown into, I guess? ("Resolved" doesn't seem quite right). Odette had a nice cameo.
Overall I give it four stars, but definitely think this book could have been two separate ones. I enjoy this world and will continue to return.
Spoiler space
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* spoiler: Lyn's descended from the Nazi in the WW2 plot...and that's about it. I was expecting baby time travel or that Bridget would turn up pregnant and Lyn would somehow be a descendant of hers or...I dunno, anything more interesting really? More interlocked? Wattleman being in both is the other tie-in, I suppose.
** The Checquy leadership are not confident in Britain’s ability to win out over HItler and secretly have a plan to offer themselves up to work for Hitler if they are forced to. Yes, that means all Checquy operatives would not get a choice in that. Yikes. Also possibly explains the “Is there a German equivalent of the Checquy?” questions in this book. (No.)
*** In Lyn’s case, Wattleman tells her later that she would have been killed on the spot, and good for her for running away!
**** Lyn’s a rare genetic supernatural and there’s a family of electrics.
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