The Legacy of Arniston House by TL Huchu

Book Review

Robin C.M. Duncan

Here is Book 4 of the planned five-book series and, as would be expected, the author cranks the action and the stakes right up; the brakes are off and the direction of rattling, jolting, careening travel is very much down into the depths of future Edinburgh’s dark, dark heart.

Returned from harrowing events at Dunvegan Castle, Ropa Moyo now is in tow with Lord Sashvindu Samarasinghe, England’s Sorcerer Royal. She has chucked Sir Ian Callander, taken the King’s penny after Scottish Magic gave her up as a bad job, and basically threw her under the bus for the debacle on Skye. Ropa thinks she is finally on the up-and-up, ready to tread her yellow brick road to Lon-Don and get well-heeled on the way, but a mysterious side-quest at Samarasinghe’s behest leads to Arniston House and a horrific encounter, the latest in a sequence of dire and doom-laden events, a line of dominoes not so much toppled as chewed up and spat out by the woodchipper of fate.

Perhaps the most rewarding aspect of this penultimate instalment of this stellar series is how deeply personal for Ropa the plot are becoming. In this book we see the revelation of some very alarming (and intriguing, for the reader) personal baggage, torn from destiny’s lost luggage department and scattered in our hero’s path: Ropa trips over one astonishing discovery after another, falling hard again and again until finally— SPOILERS!

Suffice to say, Ropa Moyo’s life spins out of control and the darkness well and truly closes in all around her. Who is friend and who is foe and what the AF can she possibly do about it? The way the author has gauged the steady building of drama, character and stakes throughout four books, delivering in each one a thrilling and exciting story while keeping enough in reserve go bigger in the next book, and the next, and the next, is truly impressive, and an object lesson for anyone writing a series. 

Recommendations from Ben Aaronovitch and Charlaine Harris should be enough to set the benchmark, but there is no risk of rocking an already very crowded (and rightly so) bandwagon to say that Edinburgh Nights is essential reading for fans of urban fantasy that bites back. The final instalment is going to be quite something.