After defecting to English magic (and higher pay), ghost-talker Ropa is ready to pack up her grandmother and leave Edinburgh behind entirely. But as tensions mount in the city and a mysterious enemy becomes more visible, Ropa’s grandmother is murdered – and Ropa is considered the primary suspect.
In the fourth book of the Edinburgh Nights series, author Huchu really begins to weave together the broader conflict brewing in the world of Scottish magic and Ropa’s personal journey, bringing to fruition many of the things that have only been hinted at in previous books. It was exciting to finally get these answers and see the stakes mount higher – even if the cliffhanger left me gnawing on my fingernails in the end.
As usual, Ropa is a complicated but lovable protagonist who makes the right choice about as often as she does the wrong one, but the fact that she’s brave enough to act continues to set her apart from most of the magicians in the series. There’s some really epic fight scenes, but where this book shone for me was on the personal front, as Ropa’s life gets upended and she loses both family and friends. Things become dire indeed, and I couldn’t stop reading.
However, the escalating stakes came paired with a fair amount of info-dumping about both the Catastrophe and Ropa’s family history, which combined with a lack of a central mystery for Ropa to go after meant that the pace of the book became sluggish at times. Combine this with less apparent agency on Ropa’s part than usual, and I found myself frustrated at times.
Still, I’m excited for book five, which I expect will wrap up the series.