Becoming The Muse

The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle is the third instalment of Edinburgh Nights Series by T.L. Huchu. It was published by Tor books on 27 July 2023.

Ghost talker Ropa Moyo gets an invite to attend a magical convention at Dunvegan Castle on the Isle of Skye. Its all fun, games and the drudgery of being an unpaid intern until a librarian gets killed and an ancient scroll goes missing… everybody is a suspect.

Boom. Lassie from the slums winds up in a castle. Ain’t that a right old fairy tale? If I didn’t know any better, I’d have done up my dreadlocks, worn a tiara and called myself princess.”

The Good

Its no secret I love fantasy… I feel a certain kinsmanship with the protagonist Ropa who is of Zimbabwean descent and of course spots dreadlocks.

“I love the orange dreadlocks by the way. They’re so autumnal. Reminds me of a beautiful poem, “Your Orange Hair in the Void of the World” by Paul Eluard.

The book is peppered with poetic, geographic and historic references blended seamlessly with fiction that I found myself having to double check if for example such a poem actually existed and to corroborate some of the nuggets of information offered in the book… which turned out to be quite factual…

It’s a well-researched book which while it felt like impressive world-building to me being unfamiliar with Scotland, am sure it offered a refreshing perspective to some of the Scottish history and the relations with the English… God Save The King and all…

The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle at its core is a closed-room-lights-out murder mystery. In my head I pictured it as a “Knives Out Mystery” Murder at Dunvegan castle. Someone in the castle did it, but who when everyone is sus.

“This pond’s too small for all the sharks swimming in it. Makes it hard to figure out who the murderer is when everyone’s got sharp teeth”

Compared to the other books in the series this instalment is more centred to the title, its actually set at Dunvegan Castle, unlike the others where the titular reference was more a waypoint although ironically its not set in Edinburgh were the book series gets its name.

It was a breath of fresh air exploring a different setting from the other books and expanded the range of the series. Got to see different sides of familiar characters outside of their usual haunts… 👻

The Bad

I missed home, that is Ropa’s grandmother Melsie Mhondoro and her young sister Izwi in their camper. Even though Melsie Mhondoro is not featured in the book she gets a couple of references that will drive you up the wall… we have never gotten the backstory into the life of Ropa’s grandmother but she must have been some piece of work.

There was less of the paranormal and instead read more like the politics of magic in Scotland than actual magic… Ropa only had a couple of ghost talking encounters and they were hardly relevant to the progression of the plot just served as a reminder that she sees dead people….

I still cant wrap my head around how anyone would live an important investigation in the hands of a 15 year old… I mean yeah sure she’s a badass but maybe the Extra Ordinary Committee needs to look into child labour and exploitation of minors in the Society of Sceptical Enquirers.

And then pop, an outlandish game of Rugby better suited at being held at Hogwarts during the TriWizard Tournament than Dunvegan Castle, and was an unnecessary complication to navigate during the murder investigation.   

The book still doesn’t answer some important questions like what happened to the world and ends on a cliffhanger that makes the book read more as a bridging story for the book that comes next.

The Ugly

The first quarter of the book was a bit of a struggle for me to get fully immersed into the story… I felt a bit lost in the isle of Skye, trying to conjure up the setting in my head.

Although Ropa still played her mbira instrument and there’s references to her Zimbabwean heritage, I couldn’t help feel she was losing her roots and her connection to me… that I was no longer part of the target audience.

I have a fondness for Afrocentric Fantasy and while the book may have mentioned a bit of Ethiopian lore, its more for people more intimately aquainted with Scotland and its history than me who has never gone more than 2000km from the place I was born.

Final Thoughts

It’s a bit of a slow start but once you get into the story it starts moving and you wont be able to put it down following its twists and bends. I read it in one sitting.