Lucien Crane was packed off to China by his family when he was 17. Several decades later, he suddenly finds himself forced back to England as the next in line to inherit money and titles. He doesn’t want to be there – he detests his family, the nobility, and everything to do with his supposed birthright – but he’s stuck for now… and that’s before the curse that killed his brother and father begins to attack him, too.
That’s how this series begins – a wild ride of magic (black, white, and everything in between), culture clashes, and forbidden love (in England at least). I began listening to the series shortly after finishing the Will Darling Adventures for the third time, hoping to fall in love with this one, too. And while I did enjoy it, it was not to the same degree. I loved the magic in it, enjoyed the growing relationship between Lucien and the magician (Stephen) who reluctantly helps him with that initial curse, appreciated the wide cast of support networks that both of these characters have. I was horrified (in a good way) at some of the extremely visceral moments in each book, and loved Charles’ exploration of what magic could look like and how it can corrupt. I like the Magpie motif and how it is used throughout. But I dunno, it just didn’t capture me the same way or make me want to read the whole thing multiple times in a row. These are great books – Charles is batting eight for eight on the yes scale for me now – just not my favorites by her.
I’m gonna say a few words about each of these books on their own, without going into plot details.
The Magpie Lord
This first volume deals with the threat to Lucien Crane’s life, the history of the Magpie Lord, and the enemies-to-lovers relationship between Lucien and Stephen. It introduces the way magic works in England, goes into some detail about shamanism in China, and got so twisty-turny that I struggled to keep up at times. It was quite lovely, and I won’t forget the hair scene any time soon. *shudder*
A Case of Possession
Lucien and Stephen have to hide their relationship re: it being illegal, and they also have to navigate their vast differences in status. Both are afraid of the other leaving, so their relationship remains prickly – not the best when there are giant rats on the loose and Lucien has to act as a translator for the practitioners in London. This book goes much deeper into Chinese traditions and rituals (in this fictional world – I know very little about Chinese history and could not say how much of this is rooted in real-world beliefs/practices). While it’s not quite as visceral as the first book, it’s still pretty gruesome in places.
A Flight of Magpies
Someone is killing police officers by magic. Someone (else?) is burgling houses, also by magic. Stephen can’t keep up, and the strain is affecting his relationship with Lucien as well as his job performance. This book had some fascinating imagery, visceral as one would expect from this series, and some twists that came unexpectedly despite the fact that I should have seen them from the start of the first book. Well played.
Performance: This series is read by Cornell Collins, who has read most of the Charles audiobooks I’ve listened to so far. At first, he was just kind of a neutral audiobook narrator for me but I’ve come to appreciate him more and more as I listen to these. I especially like the way he handles each of the voices and accents.
Final note on the series: These audiobooks each came with a short story that followed the main novel (“Interlude with Tattoos,” “A Case of Spirits,” and “Feast of Stephen,” respectively), which was a delightful little inclusion! The two earlier volumes also included a bit of the beginning of the next book, too, which meant I read them back to back rather than splitting them up with other books in between. Very clever. There are two other short stories in this series – “The Smuggler and the Warlord” and “Five for Heaven” that I will likely seek out, the same way I did the various Will Darling short stories.
The Zen Leaf 