With volume six, “Hessians and Hellhounds”, out by now, the main plot of the “Manners and Monsters” series by Tilly Wallace is finished. Both the plot about the ‘Afflicted’ and the romantic plot about Hannah and Wycliffe have reached a satisfying conclusion. There will be a little epilogue in the form of a Christmas novella, but that is just a bonus for the readers. The main story is done.
This gives me an excuse to go into a deep dive of what I love about the series.
Spoilers may follow!
First of all, I do love historical settings and “Manners and Monsters” is set in the Regency era shortly after the Napoleonic war (both of Hannah’s parents have served in the war, her father as a surgeon, her mother as a mage, as has Wycliffe who was accosted and turned during it). It is, of course, always a bit of a surprise to see more or less the same historical period in a series where things should have gone differently. In the series, there’s a constant number of twelve powerful mages in England and other places have their own mages as well. Under the circumstances, one would wonder why the Regency era should have come about in very much the same way as in our reality.
Yet, this happens a lot in fantasy - alternate realities which are almost like ours with the most minimal changes to them. It’s not that much of a surprise and it works well enough for the story.
Early on in the first book, the big problem of the series is addressed: the ‘Afflicted.’ The history behind it, as explained over the course of the series is a curse, transported to England via face powder (hence most victims are upper-class women), which kills its victims, then reanimates them. One of the first victims was Lady Seraphina Miles, the only female mage in England. She and two other women were cursed by poison in their tea and the other two were later on killed while discovering what they needed to keep their bodies from rotting: human brains. Since then, a little cottage industry has sprung up as two former grave robbers have opened a business to sell ‘pickled cauliflowers’ to the Afflicted.
As mentioned, Seraphina Miles, the mother of main character Hannah Miles, is one of the Afflicted. She was lucky as her husband Hugh loves her with all his heart, even though she’s now undead and he had been forced to amputate her legs below the knee after they’d rotted off. Many other women are not so lucky. Britain doesn’t recognize them as real citizens, so they cannot hold property, they cannot inherit anything, and they cannot marry. Many men have simply discarded their ‘dead’ wives and taken new ones, leaving the old ones to the mercy of others.
At the beginning of the first book, as Hannah attends a party at her best friend’s house, there is a murder where a servant has been killed and his head smashed open to feast on the brain. Rude and dismissive Viscount Wycliffe takes control of the situation and demands all afflicted women in the room owe up so he can check whether one of them could have done the deed. Needless to say that doesn’t endear him to anyone. He is with a government department which investigates the supernatural, though, so he has the right to investigate. Yet, his superior ‘forces’ him to take a woman along to the questionings and he settles on Hannah, thinking she won’t stop him. He’s in for a bit of a bad surprise there - Hannah, like her mother, is quite outspoken when she feels the need to be.
Wycliffe finds himself schooled on the topic of the Afflicted, though, both by Hannah’s mother who is one and by the dastardly way the husband of another Afflicted speaks of her (admitting that had he had his way, he would have had her locked in a coffin and buried by the time she was reanimated). Having a mirror held to his face from which his callous remarks are thrown at him and having met the sweet-natured, soft-hearted woman supposed to be locked in a coffin, he can only despise the other man and second-guess his own thoughts on the matter.
At the beginning of the second book, Wycliffe, who was left in financial strains by his gambling father, moves into the Miles household on Seraphina’s invitation. When it seems as if Hugh Miles might be locked up unrightfully, which would leave his wife and daughter in danger of losing everything - since Hannah, too, is cursed, but her mother’s spells keep her frozen in time -, Seraphina makes Wycliffe an offer: he marries Hannah and swears to keep her even should the curse win out, so she and Seraphina are safe, and she will give him a large amount of money, so he can set his estate right. Wycliffe agrees for two reasons: he needs the money and he does want to see Seraphina and Hannah protected, should the worst happen. Hannah is less happy, but can’t argue with the need for protection.
During the following books, the relationship between Hannah and Wycliffe changes slowly as they discover that they also love each other. Hannah learns that Wycliffe is a hellhound and that he was changed into one against his will. She sees how much he longs to set his estate right, how much he needs to help people. He understands that Hannah can’t just be a regular young woman, that she has a thirst for knowledge and needs to satisfy it. They grow closer and closer over time while investigating more supernatural cases. With “Sixpence and Selkies”, the fifth novel, things are taken to the climax for their relationship. Hannah almost falls prey to a selkie because she doubts Wycliffe, with whom she has just begun to also have a sexual relationship, really loves her. It is only when he fights for her life that she realizes he does. It is when he realizes that he should have said the words and devoted time to his wife instead of trying to show it through putting hard work into their new home that he does the right thing.
“Hessians and Hellhounds” brings the other plots to their conclusion. In it, Wycliffe learns that he was turned into a hellhound because his ancestor made a deal with Anubis (who is still the master of the dead, controlling the realm between life and afterlife). Seraphina learns that she still has the powers of a mage because the curse was based on a ritual by which a mage was dedicated to Anubis as his shadow mage. Hannah becomes a servant of Anubis’ wife, seeking out lost souls to help them move on. Hannah also learns how to help the Afflicted. She can return the ka to them (one aspect of the soul in Ancient Egyptian belief), which stops the rot and gives them their full bodies back, and can even bring them back to life, although they have to be judged and might be going to hell if they are found unworthy. This will actually also bring her and Wycliffe (who will take the unworthy souls to hell as a hellhound) an income through gemstones in which the ka of the afflicted is caught. Whether they come back to life, move on to the afterlife, or stay in their undead state, the Afflicted will no longer need ‘pickled cauliflower,’ which will calm down the masses to whom the business of the ‘cauliflowers’ has been exposed.
I do love the series and have enjoyed reading it very much. I do like the slow pace of the love plot which takes most of the series to come to completion. Instead of trying to set them up for love immediately, the story shows a rather realistic way in which two people who marry for sensible reasons might grow to love each other. There’s the fact that Seraphina is the first female mage in Britain because other girls born with magic were killed to correct ‘a mistake’ made by nature. There’s the way the government denies the afflicted women citizen rights it would never, one can be sure, deny the Afflicted, were the majority male. Without putting on a teacher’s hat, the story does address social unfairness which is not completely gone these days.
The “Manners and Monsters” series is a fun read with a good love story and many good supernatural crimes which you can guess along with as they are investigated. The characters refuse to be paper cut-outs and are interesting and engaging. I am looking forward to the Christmas novella right now, but, as said, the main story is finished and you will be able to read it from beginning to end in the six novels of the series.
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