Wrede, Patricia C., and Caroline Stevermer: (03) The Mislaid Magician

The Mislaid Magician is the third book in Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer’s series of epistolary novels set in an alternate Regency with magic. However, that description isn’t quite accurate any more, as the subtitle “Ten Years After” indicates:

6 March 1828
Tangleford Hall, Kent

My dear Thomas,

 . . . Our new prime minister found some letters that had been sitting unopened in the “Secret” packet since October, if you please! Some Prussian railway surveyor has gone missing in the north. It ought to have been looked into at once, but Lord Wellington has had his hands full with the royal family since he became PM last month. King George has never seen eye to eye with his brothers on political matters, and he and the Duke of Cumberland have had another row about the succession. Something about the Duchess of Kent and her daughter, I believe. It was all Old Hookey could do to keep it out of the papers.

But that business has blown over, for the time being at least, and now Cecelia and I are off to Leeds to see what we can find out. . . .

Meanwhile, if you have forward me any information on the theoretical interactions between magic and railway lines or steam engines, I’d appreciate it.

Yours,
James

8 March 1828
Skeynes

Dear James,

Make up your mind. Railway lines or steam engines? The current state of opinion on theoretical interactions varies considerably with whom you ask. As usual. . . .

If you care to hear my theory, although God knows you have seldom paid the slightest attention before, I think the steam engine is certain to lend itself to some exceedingly useful interactions. Nothing so thoroughly comprised of the elements of earth, water, air, and fire could fail to do so.

I am of two minds on the questions of railway lines. On the face of it, the lines should great promise as a way to link two (or even more!) points with a durable physical connection. . . . Yet, because railway tracks are made of many bits of metal placed end to end, considered as a staging point for a spell, it would be like running the Derby in installments. The enterprise might eventually work, but one would need a dashed good reason to take the trouble.

I plan to be in town before you . . . . The Bull and Mouth is far from elegant, but I suspect your children will love the bustle of the place. For once they will behold chaos they did not create themselves. I’ll meet you there.

Sincerely,
Thomas

Yes, we’re back to a letter-only format, adding Thomas and James’s correspondence to Kate and Cecy’s, and we’re out of the Regency and fully into the Industrial Revolution. While they investigate, Cecy and James leave their children with Kate and Thomas; the book is not overburdened with children, however, as only three of the collective six are particularly visible. (I was, in fact, able to keep James and Thomas straight now that they’re apart. Oddly, I could keep all their children straight too, which I did not expect.) Thomas and James’s letters are a nice addition to the narrative, and of course it’s always good to see Kate and Cecy again.

Separating the characters gives the added bonus of generating more than enough plot to go around, as stuff must happen at both ends of the correspondence to keep the book going. (Though at one point, things are so quiet at Kate’s home that she reports the solution to a mystery without even noticing that she’s done so. I’ll forgive her lapse of analytic reasoning under the circumstances, and, more importantly, forgive the authors for getting that bit of information in through her lapse.) All in all, then, this was as enjoyable as I’d hoped. My only quibble turns out to be with the previous (second) book, not this one: there, we were told in passing that Aunt Charlotte had apparently become a magician in the short time since the first book. It was such a small reference that I missed it, and so initially thought this book had mixed up the aunts when Aunt Charlotte’s magicial ability suddenly became relevant. Not the case, though, and don’t fear, there’s not very much of Aunt Charlotte in this book either.

If you liked the first one, you’ll like this one. If this one sounds interesting, you could start here perfectly well, but you might as well read the first one too. I don’t know if the authors contemplate any more: the ending is a satisfying conclusion but creates the possibility of further book-worthy happenings. I would certainly welcome reading about the characters for as long as the authors want to write about them.