Nicole Glover

A compelling debut by a new voice in fantasy fiction, The Conductors features the magic and mystery of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files written with the sensibility and historical setting of Octavia Butler's Kindred Introducing Hetty Rhodes, a magic-user and former conductor on the Underground Railroad who now solves crimes in post-Civil War Philadelphia. As a conductor on the Underground Railroad, Hetty Rhodes helped usher dozens of people North with her wits and magic. Now that the Civil War is over, Hetty and her husband Benjy have settled in Philadelphia, solving murders and mysteries that the white authorities won't touch. When they find one of their friends slain in an alley, Hetty and Benjy bury the body and set off to find answers. But the secrets and intricate lies of the elites of Black Philadelphia only serve to dredge up more questions. To solve this mystery, they will have to face ugly truths all around them, including the ones about each other. In this vibrant and original novel, Nicole Glover joins a roster of contemporary writers within fantasy, such as Victor LaValle and Zen Cho, who use speculative fiction to delve into important historical and cultural threads.

The Conductors

The premise of this book was very intriguing to me: Hetty and Benjy are magic-wielding escaped slaves that have now made a home in the north the as free people. Both of them possess unique magic and utilize those skills to solve problems that the police neglect, typically within the Black community. One of their friends is murdered, so they take up the case.

I expected a lot more from this. The magic was distinctive from a lot of other fantasy novels I’ve read before, but it’s also not well described. All I know is that it’s rooted in astrology. I found myself wanting to understand the intricacies of it more and wasn’t given that in the first 150 pages. Also, the cast of characters outside of the couple was a revolving door of new names, which confused me. I couldn’t keep track of who was who and how we know them.

Finally, I was simply bored. The murder mystery aspect of this fell so flat for me. They seem to be doing everything BUT solving this damn crime. I don’t know how this is their side hustle because their detective skills suck. They exclude people as suspects for asinine reasons. It’s just really shoddy policing. The execution was just not good enough for me, I fear.

Nik ✨

DNF’d @ 35%

The premise of this book was very intriguing to me: Hetty and Benjy are magic-wielding escaped slaves that have now made a home in the north the as free people. Both of them possess unique magic and utilize those skills to solve problems that the police neglect, typically within the Black community. One of their friends is murdered, so they take up the case.

I expected a lot more from this. The magic was distinctive from a lot of other fantasy novels I’ve read before, but it’s also not well described. All I know is that it’s rooted in astrology. I found myself wanting to understand the intricacies of it more and wasn’t given that in the first 150 pages. Also, the cast of characters outside of the couple was a revolving door of new names, which confused me. I couldn’t keep track of who was who and how we know them.

Finally, I was simply bored. The murder mystery aspect of this fell so flat for me. They seem to be doing everything BUT solving this damn crime. I don’t know how this is their side hustle because their detective skills suck. They exclude people as suspects for asinine reasons. It’s just really shoddy policing. The execution was just not good enough for me, I fear.

I honestly didn't like this book very much, the plot was decent and the world build was interesting, I just didn't find myself really caring about the characters very much

Dee B. 

Do you like murder mysteries? Like books that have a touch of magic sprinkled into the everyday world? A fan of found family tropes? Then this book is for you!

Walk with me here. We follow Hetty, a magical seamstress that moonlights as an amateur sleuth and her husband Benjy, an outwardly gruff but inwardly softhearted everyman. They discover that a friend has been killed and are determined to find out who and why. The road to answers is murky, dangerous and confusing. I had NO THEORIES up until about 70% of the way through (I was wrong). But layered under all of the chaos and mystery there's a blossoming love that comes out of it all and my heart couldn't take the idiocy of it. The fact that the love came as a shock to this specific character was actually hilarious and deserves space in the Guinness records. 

I enjoyed this ride and I hope you do too.

FILM RIGHTS NOW OPTIONED BY QUEEN LATIFAH _________________________________ 'An Underground Railroad - but with magic' P. Djeli Clark '...a delightfully genre-bending debut' Tananarive Due _________________________________ Meet Hetty Rhodes, a former conductor on the Underground Railroad who now uses her magic to solve crimes in her community in a post-Civil War world. As an escaped slave, Hetty Rhodes helped dozens of people find their own freedom north using her wits and her magic. Now that the Civil War is over, Hetty and her husband, Benjy, still fight for their people by solving the murders and mysteries that the white authorities won't touch. When they discover one of their friends brutally murdered in an alley, Hetty and Benjy mourn his loss by setting off to find answers. But the mystery of his death soon brings up more questions, more secrets, more hurt. To solve his death, they will have to not only face the ugly truths about the world but the ones about each other. Perfect for fans of Victor LaValle and Zen Cho, The Conductors is a compelling debut by a fresh voice in fantasy fiction that will leave you longing for more. _________________________________ '... a wholly original and thoroughly riveting story... an unforgettable debut' DEANNA REYBOURN, New York Times best-selling author of A Murderous Relation

Sheena

‘The Conductors’ is a truly compelling debut that did at first have a rough start but page by page, I become engrossed in Hetty and Benjy, infamous duo that now solves crimes in post-Civil War Philadelphia, journey in discovering who were committing the horrific murders while they dealt with the bubbling feelings and well guarded secrets neither one expected during the course of their marriage of convenience.

It was a perfect blend of an historical novel with fantasy and mystery elements all in one that made this a riveting read that was just too hard to put down. This is ideal for readers looking for a well paced cozy whodunit mystery filled with a fascinating premise, subplots, magic, fantasy, and characters that standout.

Everything about the premise of this book is amazing: a couple of former Underground Railroad conductors solve mysteries in post-Civil War Philadelphia using Celestial magic and the most recent case brought to their attention hits a little too close to home and brings to light issues with themselves and their friends that they've been ignoring. Seriously what isn't to love about that? For the most part, this book delivered. The pacing wasn't perfect and the differences between Celestial magic and Sorcery needed to be fleshed out more, but the core of the book was very solid, in my opinion. The flashbacks really helped flesh out the long-standing relationships between all the characters and why they have certain blind spots about each other. Honestly, my biggest complaint about this book is definitely a matter of personal preference that most people aren't going to care about. As an aromantic person, I'm constantly on the lookout for books with marriages of convenience that don't end in romance. I didn't even know going in that Hetty and her husband had a marriage of convenience but I still had a little nugget of hope that I might finally get the platonic marriage of convenience I desperately want to see. Given I'm complaining about it now, obviously that didn't happen. Most people probably won't have an issue with that and might enjoy the romance. I was severely disappointed and it took me a couple of days to come back to the book to get over it. Again, a very personal preference problem, rather than a structural issue I think a lot of people are going to dislike.

Lauren Sullivan

Content warnings: (view spoiler)[violent death, misogyny, racism, slavery, torture (hide spoiler)]

I have wanted this book ever since I saw the cover on Twitter! And it matches the book so well – a strong heroine, lots of magic and an intriguing mystery plot.

“Who are you?” she repeated. Curiosity bloomed in her eyes, overshadowing the fear.
Hetty held out a hand to the girl, much as she’d done many times before, and said, “Someone here to help.”

Hetty and her husband Benjy fell into investigating murders and similar cases because the police aren’t interested in what’s going on in the Black part of the city. When the book starts, they’ve been doing it for five years, so the discovery of a dead body isn’t that much of a big deal for them. But the fact they know this person – and that it’s a person who had shortly before his death asked for Hetty’s help – is unsettling. Hetty’s reluctant to suspect that any of her friends are involved, but Benjy is more pragmatic. Unsure who to trust, Hetty and Benjy must work together to uncover why people they know are being targeted, and how to stop Hetty from being next.

“Although the grisliest of murders occurred in these streets, night or day, Hetty had never fretted. She had her magic and she had her hairpins, not to mention enough common sense to avoid fools.”

Hetty is everything. She’s prickly and a bit judgmental, but that doesn’t stop her from helping everyone she runs into. She’s stubborn and brave, unwilling to give up while there’s still a sliver of a chance. She’s an expert seamstress and storyteller, prone to exaggerating her exploits and spellbinding their listeners. By comparison, Benjy is a blacksmith, big and tall and strong, though he’s really a cinnamon roll inside, not to mention a lover of science fiction novels and someone who prefers to think carefully and analytically about problems before jumping in to them – unlike Hetty. While they’re married, it was a marriage of a convenience since they worked as conductors on the Underground Railroad together, and figured marrying would explain why they were together so often. There’s a minor romantic subplot, as Hetty is horrified to realize she’s actually developing feelings for her husband, feelings which she doesn’t believe are returned.

“Some things are as hard to escape,” Hetty said, “as they are to forget.”
“Much like people. Sometimes you think them lost and then they show up when least expected.”

The book doesn’t shy away from the realities of being a former slave in post-Civil War Philadelphia. Hetty’s well aware that the end of the war has changed some things, but not enough. But if she wants the world to change, she knows she has to do it herself – who else will? Even five years after the end of the war, Hetty and Benjy are still trying to find their place. Free Black people, while they’re quick to ask for help or to laud them for their past work as conductors, don’t care to actually socialize with them. Their friends, mostly people they themselves rescued, are moving on without them, doing their best to ingratiate themselves with that society. Hetty is still somewhat trapped in the past, focused on finding her sister, Esther, who she was separated from during their escape. Her guilt won’t let her move on completely, and it affects her relationships with both Benjy and her friends.

“A story is a living creature, and they need a personal touch to live on. You breathe in your woes, your loves, your troubles, and eventually they become something new. They aren’t the books you love so much. Stories change with the tellers.”

The book is told solely from Hetty’s POV, which worked well for me. While most of the story occurs after the war, there’s a few interludes of pre-war and during-the-war events in Hetty’s life, which mainly added necessary details about her relationship with Benjy, her sister, and some of the runaways they helped. With that being said, it’s very slowly paced and sometimes a bit meandering, though overall I loved the mystery. There’s a lot going on, and initially it seems like Hetty is being pulled every which way trying to solve multiple unrelated cases. How – and if – those cases are connected kept me stumped for quite a bit. One of the other things that took my mind off the pacing was the side characters, especially Darlene and Penelope and her circus of cousins. In a much appreciated touch, there’s a few queer characters, including a trans man and a gay couple.

“I wanted him part of every story that could be told of my life,” Hetty admitted, “and these feelings ruin things.”

I absolutely adored the Celestial magic, but I wish more of it had been explained. There’s a bunch of sigils based on constellations – I think Virgo was my favorite – and Hetty stacks the deck by sewing the sigils into her clothing, including a band around her neck she wears to hide the scars from a magically activated slave collar. White people have their own form of magic, Sorcery, that uses a wand, and it’s illegal for Black people to possess or use a wand. While we see Hetty and others using that magic, it’s more of a “she used such-and-such constellation to light the lamp” with no other explanation about why she’d use that one.

Overall, I very much enjoyed this debut novel, and I’m looking forward to seeing where the next in the series picks up.

I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Eleanor Luhar

NICOLE. GLOVER

_________________________________ '... a wholly original and thoroughly riveting story... an unforgettable debut' DEANNA REYBOURN, New York Times best-selling author of A Murderous Relation _________________________________ Meet Hetty Rhodes, a former conductor on the Underground Railroad who now uses her magic to solve crimes in her community in a post-Civil War world. As an escaped slave, Hetty Rhodes helped dozens of people find their own freedom north using her wits and her magic. Now that the Civil War is over, Hetty and her husband, Benjy, still fight for their people by solving the murders and mysteries that the white authorities won't touch. When they discover one of their friends brutally murdered in an alley, Hetty and Benjy mourn his loss by setting off to find answers. But the mystery of his death soon brings up more questions, more secrets, more hurt. To solve his death, they will have to not only face the ugly truths about the world but the ones about each other. Perfect for fans of Victor LaValle and Zen Cho, The Conductors is a compelling debut by a fresh voice in fantasy fiction that will leave you longing for more.

Judy McClure

Um. I really don't know how to rate this one actually. Not because there was anything wrong with the story but because my UK edition of this book was horrendously edited. I'm talking multiple errors per chapter ... sometimes per page. Words missing, put into the wrong place in the sentence, repeated. We've all found such errors on occasion in a book we're reading but I've never come across a book where they were everywhere. And it spoiled my enjoyment of the book because they kept tripping me out of the narrative, regularly. I couldn't lose myself in the book because of the interruption in my concentration. And then I began watching for the errors in a sort of fascinated horror type thing. It was so bad that I actually emailed a complaint to Penguin Random House telling them about it. They sent a reply thanking me for my concern and they'd refer my complaint to their Editing Team. I feel so badly for the author who's created a really fascinating magic system, a good mystery and interesting characters and her first book was so badly serviced by the publishers who should have had her back. I don't know if the US edition is the same. I don't know if this is a wide spread problem with the entire run of this book but its a real shame. Yes, this is a book worth checking out ... hope your copy isn't like mine. The faults are entirely with the publisher.

Jelke Lenaerts

I received a galley of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. 

This book has a content warning for slavery.

I think this book just wasn't really for me. It's definetly not a bad book but I just didn't really connect to it. I think that's because I was more interested in the magical element than the mystery but this book focused more on the mystery than the magical element. So, I think that's the main reason this book didn't work for me. Besides that I also just didn't really like the mystery and how it was resolved. I don't know, it just didn't work for me. I did quite like our main character but the side characters fell a bit flat for me. On top of that there was a romance in here that felt a bit forced in and I wish was done differently as well. The 'interludes' also felt a bit unnececary. I just think they didn't really add anything to the story. However, I did like the setting of this book. It is an interesting time period and I would like to read more books set in this time period. I also won't be continueing on with this series because I was happy with how this ended and don't feel the need to read more.

Nickie Mohler

3.5 stars
This story follows Hetty and Benjy, two former conductors for the Underground Railroad. Now they help people in a different way. They solve mysteries. One of their current jobs is hitting a little too close to home. People are dying so they better solve it quick or they may be next.

I enjoyed the story. I liked the premise. I really liked the characters. The writing is great. My only problem is the magic. I wish it was explained better. I thought it was confusing and that took away from the story. I would still like to read more from this author.

I received a copy from Net Galley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Elodia

I liked the overall plot and mystery, but there were too many characters and it was hard for me to keep track of everyone.

Simona Andrijauskiene

*I’ve got this book from NetGalley in exchange of an honest review* 

I will jump straight to the point with this one. This book just was not for me. I really tried to read it AND enjoy it, but it’s just too confusing. Feels like it’s a second or a third book in the series, when you already know the magic system and don’t need any more explanation. 
Also there were so many characters introduced in first few pages, that finally I just got confused who was who and how they were connected, were they friends or enemies. 
And thirdly, I tried to read this book for at-least 3 months now and still couldn’t past the 15% mark, so I just can’t waste more if my time for book I don’t enjoy. 
That’s why I’m deciding to DNF it.

I ended up really enjoying this debut! While the writing wasn't always as solid and fluent as it could have been, this is a solid story with gorgeous character interaction and an interesting premise. 

Full review to come.


  Note: Review copy received via NetGalley. This does not impact opinions within this review.


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Happy reading! ❤

Teresa Schultz

This review is based on an ARC I received from NetGalley.

The Conductors had an interesting concept for a story. Two former slaves-turned-Underground-Railroad-conductors are now detectives after the Civil War, helping to solve crimes that the regular police ignore because they're against Black people. At the same time, two types of magic exist in this world, sorcery and celestial magic, with the former being kept for white people while the other was practiced by black people. Unfortunately, the execution was lacking.

I'm not a fan of mysteries, so I won't/can't say much about the mystery here. However, I was really frustrated by the lack of world-building done when it came to the magic. It seemed like such an interesting idea, and what little we learned of it did leave me intrigued. Sorcery magic involves wands and seems to be tied to colonialist ideas in that it sucks all the magical energy out there, whereas celestial seems to seek a balance and recognizes that others might do magic differently and that's OK. I loved this idea, but I was really confused as to how celestial magic worked. Could anyone do it? Only certain people? What did all of the sigils do? The book did eventually provide some answers, but it took a while and just caused a lot of confusion. I'm guessing this won't be the last book featuring these characters, so hopefully the author will dive more into this fantasy world, just hopefully more clearly. I definitely think it deserves more detail!

My other issue was with the pacing. The first third of the book was VERY slow. I struggled so many times to keep reading it. It did finally pick up and got more interesting, but I don't know if it was ever good enough to forgive that beginning. 

I did enjoy the main character, Hetty. She was a delightfully flawed but strong woman. And the romance was a welcome development - but again, I think it would have helped more if we had more details of their prior relationship! It seemed a little to come out of nowhere. But I certainly wasn't dissatisfied with it. And some of the side characters were also well developed, and it seems like others are being saved for future books, which is fine. 

Again, I'm not a big fan of mysteries, so others might like it more than I did.

Catalina Petre

I had to DNF this book. I have read 43% and could not bring myself to carry on. I have tried to like Hetty and Benjy, but there was nothing personable about either of them. Their friends seemed like materialistic people who fell with each other over little things. I did not care who killed Charlie and why.

The Conductors

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