"We don't know how many men -- er, or women -- are involved."
"They're men ... if even a single woman was involved, they wouldn't have decided that a man who'd been working there one day was a more likely source of information than a woman who'd been there for years." [loc. 4104]
A Marvellous Light is the first in the 'Last Binding' trilogy, set in an alternate Edwardian England. Civil servant Robin Blyth, recently become a baronet after the (unexplained) deaths of his socialite parents, finds himself appointed as Assistant in the Office of Special Domestic Affairs. His first morning in the job is an eye-opener, as he encounters not only a lady civil servant of Indian origin -- the marvellous Adelaide Morrissey -- but the prickly Edwin Courcey, his liaison to the Magical Assembly. Courcey is a very minor magician, but yes: magic is real. And as Robin makes his way home, he falls victim to a rather darker enchantment than the snowflake conjured by Courcey: a curse is laid on him by men who believe the prior holder of his office passed on a vital secret ...
Afflicted and frightened by the curse, Robin accepts Edwin's invitation to his family home, where he meets Edwin's appalling siblings, narrowly escapes drowning, visits a charming country house with a murder maze, and begins to realise that he's attracted to Edwin -- and that it's mutual. Cue the 'can you help me with my cufflinks?' ploy, which felt like a deliberate shout-out to K J Charles' excellent Think of England.
A Marvellous Light focusses on the romance, though it doesn't ignore the magical mystery. There are themes of consent (both magical and sexual) and of confidence and its lack. Edwin and Robin, despite their shared tastes in pornography, are very different people -- the former a dedicated scholar, accustomed to hiding everything that matters beneath layers of emotional armour; the latter a hearty athletic type with a strong protective streak -- and their growing regard for one another is expressed as much in mutual support and encouragement as in romantic gestures. Their nascent relationship is inextricably entwined with, and affected by, the secret which Reggie Gatling (the previous Assistant in the Office of Special Domestic Affairs) died to keep.
That, by the way, is something that the reader knows (courtesy of a rather gruesome opening scene in which Reggie meets his end) but the characters don't: given that for much of the book there's discussion of how frightfully out of character Reggie's disappearance seems, this was unsettling. Though of course foreknowledge is an endemic issue in historical fiction: we recognise that the 'something terrible coming', feared by the Magical Assembly and by the villains alike, is very probably the First World War.
There are several characters I'm hoping to see in subsequent volumes: rude and arrogant Hawthorn, Edwin's ex; Adelaide Morrissey's sister Katy; Edwin's mother, afflicted by an unspecified malaise; Robin's sister Maud, who is keen to study at Newnham. And I look forward to seeing how the elements of the Last Contract are revealed and reunited ...
Reread for this review, and it's just as delicious the second time around. Thanks to NetGalley for the free copy, provided in exchange for this honest review.
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