I do like magic, I do like ‘fish out of water’ stories, I do like strong female characters, and I do like Steampunk. That’s four reasons for me to read “The Case Files of Henri Davenforth” by Honor Raconteur. The series currently has four books and there’s a chance it will be continued, so I will keep an eye on things there.
I had looked into “Magic and the Shinigami Detective” a while back, simply because of the ‘Shinigami’ part. Some of my favourite animé/manga characters are shinigami, after all, especially Grelle, William, and the Undertaker from “Black Butler”. In this case, though, there’s no ‘real’ shinigami involved - it’s something one of the main characters, Jamie Edwards, calls herself when asked who she is after stumbling into a village. She’s been through a lot and wasn’t completely serious with it, but the moniker stuck - twice so, because the translation spell failed at it. In a prologue, the reader learns about how Jamie came to be stuck in a strange world without a chance to go back home, ever. From then on, the point of view mostly shifts to Henri Davenforth, Jamie’s partner and friend, who has it easier to introduce the reader to the new world they have now entered.
At the time at which the main part of the story begins, Jamie has been in the new world for a while (a year to one-and-a-half) and has acclimatized more or less. Like this, the stories of the four books so far can hinge on the mystery aspects, since they’re fantasy police procedurals, both Jamie and Henri being employed by the fourth precinct in Kingston, she as a detective (the ‘Shinigami Detective’) and he as a magical examiner (essentially the magical equivalent to a forensics expert, checking the scene of the crime for magical traces).
The story has a lot of different races, not just humans. Dark elves, dwarves, different were-creatures, brownies, wood fairies, dryads, and others live interspaced with humans and there seems little bigotry going on (merely werefoxes have a bad reputation for being tricksters, which makes it harder for them to find work). There is sexism, though, which is tackled in the stories, not just because of Jamie. The current ruler of Kingston, Queen Regina, is adamant that women should have access to all jobs, but in this world’s equivalent of the 1920s, that’s still a long time in the making. Yet, there’s a lot of women in the story who are not confined to traditional roles. There are female officers and, eventually, detectives, the guild master of the artificer’s guild is a woman, there are several female storeowners, and quite some others as well. The world is shifting in more than one way, as it was in our 1920s, too.
What I love about the books is how well-developed the characters are and how well-build the world around them is. Fantasy authors often have a tendency to make their worlds some equivalent of the European Middle Ages (blame Tolkien, if you have to), because that seems an appropriate setting for a magical environment - or they go with an Urban Fantasy where everything is like in our world, but with magic. I’m going to do a post about that in the future, but right now, let’s just say this magic-infused early-twentieth-century world is a welcome change from the usual.
There are both horse-drawn carts and early cars on the streets. Industrialisation is a thing and the populace in the big cities is rising quickly, with all the problems that brings (such as an increased crime rate and problems with missing residential space). While there is quite some magic in most people’s regular lives (often in the form of charms, which play a big role in the second book - “Charms and Death and Explosions (oh my!)”), there’s also quite some technology. Jamie adds to the technological development, though, through her friendship with the guild master of the artificer’s guild - giving the other woman new things to invent, partially based on technology alone, partially worked out with magical parts, since our world’s technical resources don’t exist there already.
With roughly five percent of the human populace having magical talent and some of them not training in magic or becoming licensed mages for one reason or other (such as deciding on a different line of work or lacking funds to set up as a mage and pay for their licence), the huge majority of humans doesn’t actively use magic. Among the other races, only elves seem to have a natural affinity for it (Gerring, a dark elf police officer, can see traces of magic, even though he’s not a mage). There’s, however, no stereotyping of non-human characters, either. They have been a part of this world for as long as the humans, so they’re just a part of the society, not treated any differently from the human populace. They work and live in the same places and, clearly, make the same money (there are several wealthy non-human characters). They can lead institutions and have their own shops running, perfectly integrated with the human populace.
As far as the mystery part of the books goes, it’s also done very well. Police procedurals can be a little dry at times, because things are done ‘by the book’ instead of the amateur detective bumbling around and annoying people (which doesn’t mean Henri and especially Jamie are above annoying people…). Jamie was an FBI agent before she was snatched from her world and experimented on, so she has the experience a police officer needs, which makes her a fitting and logical partner for Henri, whose forte lies in the background work. Yet, the infusion of magic, which gives Henri a lot of work to do outside as well, means that procedures in this world are quite different. The author also summarizes long stints of taking interviews or going over files - that is not what you read a book for, after all, that’s what has to happen in the background, but doesn’t need to be shown on-page. Everything important is on the pages, though, even if it doesn’t seem that important until the reader has the full picture.
The relationship between Henri and Jamie develops while they work together, but not as a love relationship. Instead, they form a very strong friendship (which also includes another male friend - Royal Mage Sherard Seaton, a guy who only ever is dignified in public and loves to be a drama queen in private). I love how the story doesn’t force a love relationship between the two and allows for Henri to be introverted (one big reason why he chose his work - especially given that he’s wealthy and doesn’t need it) and Jamie to recognize that and give him the time to recover from too many people at times. The fact that both live in the same boarding house and Henri is a foodie while Jamie loves to cook, gives them more reason to also spend some of their spare time together.
“Magic and the Shinigami Detective”, “Charms and Death and Explosions (oh my!)”, “Magic Outside the Box”, and “Breaking and Entering 101” are four wonderful novels to read with great characters, a novel, interesting world, and well-wrought mysteries. It’s a lot of fun to dive into the city of Kingston and watch Jamie Edwards and Henri Davenforth solve a case or four.
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