This is the 2 nd book in a series. It is filled with world building that is full of magic.
The writing is amazing and so captivating.

Thank you NetGalley for an e-arc of this book. I loved the 1st volume and I really wanted to continue the series. This was absolutely incredible, I loved going back to this world - a magical ghostly Edinburgh.

We are continuing to follow Ropa Moyo, her friends and family (I love her grandma) Ropa’ s really into Edinburgh’s secret societies – but turns out they are less into her. So instead of getting paid to work magic, she’s had to accept a crummy unpaid internship. This makes her take an offer for a side job from her Priya. Priya works at Our Lady of Mysterious Maladies, a very specialized hospital, where a new illness is resisting magical and medical remedies alike. The first patient was a teenage boy, Max Wu, and his healers are baffled. If Ropa can solve the case, she might earn as she learns – and impress her mentor, Sir Callander.

This read like a mystery - fantasy book with secret societies and ghosts. Love it!!!

It took me a while to get back into the swing of reading the MCs writing, Ropa, as she has such a unique narration style, but as soon as I did I got sucked back into this world.

I don't read nearly enough mystery/fantasy books as I would like, and this makes me remember why a good mystery can be one of my favourite genres.

I liked that we got to see some new places in this book, and can't wait to see all the others places we'll be seeing and exploring in this series!

The second instalment in Huchu's acclaimed Edinburgh Nights series, Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments is a thoroughly enjoyable Urban Fantasy with all the mystery and intrigue of The Library of the Dead.

Another thrilling, laugh-out-loud adventure for irresistible heroine Ropa. After the events of the first book we return to Huchu’s dystopian Edinburgh which has to be one of my favourite ever settings. Ropa is still working hard to make ends meet for her grandmother and sister but her recent adventures mean that her ghost-talking business has dried up. In the hope of making some decent cash she agrees to investigate the mysterious illness of Max Wu, a student at the elite Edinburgh school of magic. Soon more students are falling ill, and it becomes clear that the school has something to hide and that something dark is stalking the city…

Huchu returns with another riot or plot and character. The events sweep along at breakneck speed with plenty on surprises on the way. He weaves new places and institutions into his world with lots of wit and imagination and Ropa is a tough-as-nails, heart-of-gold, wise-cracking narrator with enough flaws and vulnerabilities to make her always engaging and believable.

I love Ropa. I love her spirit, I love her confidence, I love her willingness to do anything for her family.
I love Priya. I love her intelligence, I love her resilience, I love her pride.
Most of all, I love this Edinburgh, with its colourful gangs, its magical underbelly, its clever twists on reality, presenting places I know well in a new light.

This is the sequel to The Library of the Dead and somehow it was even better than the first book. I can't wait to see where T.L. Huchu will take this series next.

Set not long after the events of the first book, we're back in Edinburgh following around Ropa as she tries to support her younger sister and elderly grandmother. Too bad her ghosttalking business hasn't been doing so well. Thankfully, she's supposed to be starting a paid internship soon. Except that other practitioners aren't too pleased with her mentor Sir Callander for bringing Ropa into the Library, and they block her from her paid internship. But then her friend who works at the Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments hospital has a case for her. A rich schoolboy is in a coma, and nobody knows how to help him either medically or magically. It's up to Ropa to travel the astral planes and figure out how to save him before it's too late.

There is so. much. action in this story, as it was with the first instalment, that it should come as no surprise that this is an incredibly fast read. The action never stops and you never want to put down the book because you just have to know what will happen next. Huchu is a master at writing fantasy adventure like this, perfectly balancing the line between action and information, continuously building on this familiar-but-also-not world Ropa and her friends inhabit.

You can already feel a Big Confrontation coming down the line, and I can't wait for it. Please give me the third book now, thank you.

Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments is the second book in the Edinburgh Nights series. I really enjoyed book 1, it felt fresh and unique, and seemed like a great starting point for a whole new fantasy world.

Unfortunately, I don’t really feel that book 2 has added anything to Ropa’s world. The book felt flat, and really suffers from being so short. The world building needs depth to flesh out what is obviously a unique fantasy world.

I like Ropa, and the book reads easily, however book 3 will need to be a serious step up otherwise I think ill have to walk away.

I liked this book and thought that the representation of different characters was really well done! I did feel like it I struggled to really settle in to the writing style, but this didn't put me off.

“Maybe this is what it is like to be sat inside a human heart, because this room feels alive.”

This is the second book in the Edinburgh Nights series by T.L. Huchu. Fuelled by magic, ghost stalking and a cast of unique characters, this instalment takes the reader on a mystical adventure.

Ropa is once again drawn into spiralling events since her discover of the occult underground library. Being the only one to provide for her wee family, she is frustrated to be part of an unpaid internship. Soon her friend gives her a job opportunity on the side at the Lady of Mysterious Ailments hospital. Here begins the baffling case of Max Wu, a teenager who’s body is working against the magical and medical remedies this hospital specialises in. This sends Ropa on mission to help Max but to also connect the dots between his case and other secrets within Scotland’s past. Can she successfully solve both mysteries whilst keeping her family together?

This second novel in the Edinburgh Nights series was so easy to devour, the fast paced action from the struggles and twists that Ropa has to encounter kept me wanting more. Despite the life she has been dealt with she strives to look out for her loved ones in any way possible, she is pushed time and time again and never backs down without a fight. This is clear in all the bizarre encounters she has along the way.

The author paints a picture of a dystopian Edinburgh which was interesting to imagine, being familiar with the city and the thorough background information we are given just added so much more to the story being told.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and would recommend it to everyone being sure to check out The Library of the Dead first.

The second book in the Edinburgh Nights series came out last week! Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments by T.L. Huchu picks up after the events of The Library of the Dead which I was on the tour for last year and really enjoyed as an introduction to this creepy (but not scary) Scottish magical book series.

Book two again has a wonderful bright cover design and again follows Ropa (➡️swipe to read the synopsis) in her next adventure, this time she is investigating a mysterious illness in the magical community.

I remember reading book one and thinking we had barely scratched the surface with the characters so I was really pleased while reading this that Huchu seems to have found his stride in the writing style. Ropa is as dry witty as in the first book and has some real corkers in her slang language - it feels less forced in book two and naturally the characters (and ghosties) have developed along with the world building which has taken me a while to get to grips with (mixing shillings with mobile phones and the 'net' will do that to me!). The descriptions are fantastic and the storyline is intricate without being overwhelming which I loved.

I have to say, as soon as I started book two, it was difficult to put down - Huchu does give a little overview of book one in the first chapter but not in any detail so while you could skip book one I would definitely suggest you start there to give yourself the grounding - it's worth it and both books have been great easy reads for me.

I loved book one so this book had a lot to live up to! and it delivered! In this book we get so much more character development, Ropa is becoming one of my favourite characters. The plot of this book really expanded on book one and there was so much I just didn't see coming. The magic in this world is so complex and well thought out, I can't wait for more books from this author!

I loved the atmospheric dystopian Edinburgh the author created and the urban fantasy aspect felt very fresh. Ropa continues to be a fascinating main character, intelligent, street-smart and capable. I enjoyed the plot of this book more than the first and enough threads are left hanging to hint at future stories. A well-written and engaging urban fantasy.

I really wanted to like this series. The concept it really cool, but the main issue is that the world itself isn’t explained like at all. Everything remains vague and I have no idea why things are the way they are. Which is a shame as I want to know these things!
Our main character is very interesting but again, without understanding the wider context fir the world and the reasons why things ended up this way it’s sometimes hard to know if something is good or bad or normal at first when it happens. I felt this during the first book and unfortunately I’m still feeling it now. I don’t think I will continue the series.

Returning to the Edinburgh Nights series was a joy, Ropa’s unique dialogue and infectious thirst for knowledge a breath of fresh air as it was the first time I cracked open The Library of the Dead. I always feel at home when reading in Ropa’s voice. As a 30 something Londoner living in Glasgow her dialogue reminds me of the late 90s and 00s because she’s picked up bits from TV and other pop culture sources that have survived from before the catastrophe. She sits down with her family to watch Diagnosis: Murder, something I used to do when I was her age (albeit, minus the family).

The way she blends words is reminiscent of that time in my life too, of slang from high school and college where we were all making up our own words to express ourselves. This was especially noticeable to me growing up in south-east London where so many young people from different cultures were merging together, everyone trying to understand each other and themselves. I remember one day in religious studies when a group of girls came in and started loudly talking about “The Power”. “Have you got The Power?” they asked me, like it was some huge secret, and no they weren’t talking She-Ra. This was their secret code for a woman’s period. Funny enough it didn’t catch on. I remember shaking my head because we were sixteen at that point, and I’d started mine at age ten, way before most of my classmates. By that point it had long ago lost its mystery to me.

So the way that Ropa and her pals talk, creating new language on the spot is wonderfully familiar. The way that Jomo always has a new “Ropa-” name for her every time he greets her always makes me smile. I get the feeling that he doesn’t know what he’s going to say until she appears and that’s a feeling that Huchu conveys throughout the dialogue in Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments. He’s very good at making it feel natural, of making his character’s responses feel just like something you, or I would do rather than something constructed which is a danger when they’re quite literally created characters.

As to be expected in the second book a lot of things progress in terms of overall story and character development. We start to find out more details about individual characters. The Library of the Dead was primarily focused on Ropa and introducing us to her and her world, Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments is more about introducing Ropa to the world of magic and in doing so we learn more about her friends and associates. Naturally, this means Priya and Jomo. Priya is hell on wheels again, and Huchu doesn’t hold back with the realistic wheelchair representation. We learn more about Priya’s past and present, where she went to school and where she works. I appreciated that Huchu was candid with the animosity between Edinburgh and Glasgow, and funnelled it into the magical academic institutes in the Edinburgh Nights series. With Pryia representing Glasgow as a graduate of the Lord Kelvin Institute in Glasgow, we learn via her about that school and during Ropa’s investigation of Max Wu, Priya’s patient, we learn about the Edinburgh Ordinary School for boys. Additionally, we learn that there are two other schools; St Andrews College in St Andrews and the Aberdeen School of Magic and Esoterica.

In the first book Jomo felt quite underused, and in this one we see a lot more of him, and learn more about what he does in the Library. Huchu is peeling back the layers slowly, throwing us bones of information here and there which feeds our thirst for knowledge but also conjures so many more questions. We get to see more of what Jomo does inside the Library, and what his career as a librarian is going to lead to eventually. It’s both fascinating and creepy as hell, in the same way that Huchu served up in book one. It’s morbidly interesting, despite the way your mind is telling you that you shouldn’t be that interested in it. That something about this situation isn’t quite right. It’s a hugely morally grey area that you just know wouldn’t and shouldn’t be allowed to happen, except, you know; secret world of magic.

If you’re familiar with the first book in the series you’ll recall a rather dramatic chase across the city, and if you enjoyed that I’m happy to tell you there’s another fabulous chaotic scene in this book involving Priya and Ropa. It’s as wild as their first adventure, but in a totally different way, and it’s magnificent. Jomo fans, don’t worry; he and Ropa have one of their own too although in a much more Jomo-like fashion.

It’s not just Ropa’s relationship with her pals that are developing in this book, it’s their relationships with each other and growth isn’t always sunshine and roses. While their friendships are strong, they’re still in the early stages and it was so nice to see an author realise this. Too often I see characters become besties and then never disagree, or they have huge bust ups and melodramatics over trivial things. In Ropa’s world there’s no time for that, and when there’s a disagreement it’s over something important, two people just seeing things from a different perspective. Additionally, we see some other relationships happening, some that are sweet and some that are a wee bit of a shock that you’re going to need to read the book to find out about. Huhcu is making us work for every scrap of information, every secret, just like Ropa has to. This isn’t a book where we, the reader, know things. We’re on an equal playing field with Ropa when it comes to the secrets that people are hiding.

There are a lot of different perspectives in Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments. As Ropa steps into the magic world she’s prepared to do what it takes to make a good impression, and it quickly becomes evident that there will always be people who don’t care what she can do, just who she is and where she’s from. She’s constantly made to feel as though she isn’t good enough, doesn’t know enough and is taking up a spot as Sir Callander’s apprentice that should have gone to a more experienced magician. Ropa takes it on the nose, shrugs it off and dazzles them with a smile that often terrifies them because they don’t know what to make of her. Now that Ropa is “in” their world we get to learn alongside her and I adored the way Huchu tied in Scottish history.

Ropa continues to talk about the catastrophe that happened as known fact, and I’m even more convinced that Huchu has chosen not to give the reader details about what happened as a way to keep the reader focused on the here and now. The past isn’t important, it’s Ropa’s life and the present that matters. Huchu is gradually giving us more information about the King, a terrifying figure who rules from London (the parallel between this and modern day Westminster is neatly done) and I think in the next book we’ll find out even more especially as dark events have been foretold.

In Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments we see more of the world post-catastophe, and it was chilling to find out that that so many people live as we do now with all the mod-cons. The focus of the first book was much smaller, character wise and geographically, and in book two the full reality of life after the catastrophe becomes clear. Namely, that the majority of people have just gone on with their lives and turn their backs on the people and families struggling to survive in the slums, like Ropa and her family. It reminded me of how people are just moving on from the pandemic and how so many of us do it with disasters worldwide. We don’t see it, so it’s not our problem. It was a very humbling reminder that we all need to be more aware.

For me, Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments was a four-star read compared to The Library of the Dead being a very clear five stars. It is difficult to compare the two books as they feel very different to me, and that’s not a bad thing. Book one was very dark with a horror flick essence at points, while this second outing with Ropa is about her starting her journey. At one point during Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments she says to her gran that she can’t stay in the caravan doing the same thing all her life. That is what this book is about. Yet at the heart of it, it’s still Ropa being Ropa and making her own reputation despite people pulling her down. As she battles racism and classism, sometimes casual and other times without shame, Ropa is doing what she does best and that is solving a mystery that no one else can solve. While the overall storyline is very different from The Library of the Dead all the same elements I love from book one are here. Ropa with a mystery, following clues while trying to make ends meet, doing her own thing and finding her place in the world.

Library of the Dead was about Ropa’s journey to the magic world, whereas Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments is the start of Ropa’s journey within it. We walk alongside her as she’s opening her eyes to the magic world and the idea that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. It’s just as messy and complicated, with bad stuff as the world she has come from, just people think they’re better. But there are some good apples too, and even as people try to keep her down there are people looking to give her a helping hand. The way Huchu chooses to end this one is a reminder that there’s always a way to triumph over people who stand in the way; sometimes you just have to be a bit sneaky about it ;)

Since the events of The Library of the Dead, Ropa Moyo’s ghost-talking business has tanked. With her apprenticeship down-graded to an unpaid internship and desperate for money to look after her family, she accepts a job investigating the activity of a coma patient at the magical hospital Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments.

It was great to be back on another case with Ropa and the gang. I enjoyed this one more than the first, because the characters and setting were already well established and it was therefore possible to get straight on with the story, which is fast-paced and full of action.

Ropa is just as fierce as she was in book #1, and undergoes some strong character development as she realises she can’t always storm in and get involved without thinking first. The narrative style of Ropa’s stream of consciousness is so well done and completely immersive, it’s impossible not to love her.

I adore these books. They are fast-paced, full of fantastic characters and incredibly compelling. They take traditional tropes of urban fantasy mysteries, blending it with the Edinburgh setting, more than just a place, more of a character of its own and influenced by the author’s Zimbabwean heritage. In this second book, even more so than the first, Huchu plays with the UK’s obsession with tradition and old families, having Ropa as a counterpoint to these elements of stodgy heritage, encouraging institutions to rethink their attitude by merely existing and moving through the world. And that, to me, is wonderful. The Edinburgh Nights series is both easy to read and pulpy, while incorporating a lot of social criticism and elements intended to make the reader ponder. That combination is one of my absolute favourite things to find in books.

What I really liked about Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments is that Ropa gets a gang. While The Library of the Dead has her very much on her own, this has her grow as a person, realise that she cannot fight her way against the world alone. Priya and Jomo, who gets far more attention this time around are just as fun and quirky, and together they make a great team. The way relationships between characters developed in this installment and a greater picture has been hinted at, I am extremely keen to see how this is going to continue and desperate to get my hands on the next book (please tell me it’s coming soon?).

Huchu is a massive talent to look out for – his books are unique and special, and we as readers are better off for having them. This is what we mean when we say we need diverse stories. Stories that are diverse down to their core, with no way to separate out elements, not ones where diversity is a sheen on top that can easily be removed. Do yourself a favour and read this series.

First of all, what I love about this series is how it blends together so many different things. It’s very ambitious in that respect but Huchu does it masterfully. Not only is it an urban fantasy with strong paranormal, scientific and historic themes – it’s also a little bit dystopian, a coming-of-age story and a mystery all rolled into one. For me, the mystery element holds the greatest appeal and I love seeing Ropa’s investigative process. She’s still a kid and she makes some mistakes. I thought it was a great to see Ropa be shown in a developmentally accurate way. As such, I'm really looking forward to the next instalment and watching Ropa’s journey progress throughout the series.

Did I enjoy it as much as book 1? No. But I do feel that it held value in terms of world-building including the magic systems and social hierarchy within this Edinburgh, the development of the core group of characters and the introduction of people, places and concepts that I suspect will become more important as the series progresses. It built on book 1 and opened doors for future books and that’s ultimately what you want from a sequel.

Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments sees a welcome return for Ropa Moya, a fifteen year old girl living in a near-future Edinburgh in the wake of a cataclysm that has changed society. There has also been a civil war or sorts, perhaps an attempt at secession, which has left Edinburgh under London's heel and everyone nervously determined to perform their loyalty:

'God save the King!'

'Long may he reign'

Ropa lives in a caravan on the city's fringes with her Gran and little sister, Izwi. The site they live own is half slum, half refugee camp, and Roma's their main provider, so at the start off the book considers herself fortunate to have landed herself an apprenticeship with Sir Ian Callender, Secretary to the Society of Sceptical Enquirers, Scotland's leading magical society. It's a development that has put noses out of joint at Scotland's elite magical Schools, and unfortunately Ropa is in for a fall, one that leaves her in desperate need of cash and puts her in the way of a little private business helping out her mate Priya.

Huchu writes this book very much from the perspective of those at the bottom. Ropa has a magical mystery to solve, but she easily spends as much time trying to keep her head above water. Grabbing the odd gig at her old role of ghostalker. Scrounging food (foraging for plums, killing an unlucky rabbit with her catapult. Trading the results with a web of contacts. Preparing meals. Negotiating with the Edinburgh gangs, whose perpetual Cold War has flared hot. And in the course of this we're shown many of the outcasts on the "informal" side of this magical Edinburgh, as well as the lofty ones who dominate it.

With the basics introduced in the previous book, The Library of the Dead, Huchu combines the mystery which is the ostensible subject here - a posh schoolboy who's fallen into a perplexing magical coma, one the skilled staff at the Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments hospital are baffled by - with a lot more backstory about Ropa, the Society and even Roma's Gran who it seems has connections with the travelling people as well being known to Sir Ian. Exactly how and why we don't learn, Gran's not talking (I sensed a certain Granny Weatherwax stubbornness in her...) but it seems to have done Ropa no favours with the formal magical world. (In this series of books, prejudice is alive and well, and certain forms of magic are definitely considered less prestigious).

We also learn more about the history of this world, though it remains entwined with our own. A sub-plot exposes the Society's links to Scotlands shot at colonialism, the doomed Darien schemes, making the point (in an understated way) that many of our institutions have blood at their roots. But history has a way of biting back, and the goings-on in Edinburgh are also entwined with high politics...

I loved this book, perhaps even more than The Library of the Dead. Ropa is an engaging main characters, apt to quote philosophy one moment, philosophy the next and quantum physics the third. She's a restless, bright mind, seeing through the fuss of society and in hear magical learning, impatient with having to go through the basis when she's so much more talented than many around her. Which, of course, doesn't make her very popular - she's definitely attracted one Nemesis already.

There's also a sharp eye for injustice here. When all is revealed about who has been pulling strings, old school ties and friends-of-friends are enough to ensure that they dodge trouble and that a scapegoat is found instead. Magic may be fun and powerful, but it's bound up with a net of privilege and influence which is taken more or less for granted. I'm guessing that Roma's patience with this (never abundant) isn't going to last through many more books and I look forward to fireworks ahead.

Overall, an inventive, engaging read, a book with great heart and passion and which is, above all, FUN from first page to last. Do read this - you don't have to have read Library of the Dead first, but you will want to read it when you are done, I think.

When a new fantasy or SG series starts there are questions you can only really start to get answered in the second book. What type of series will this be? Pure standalone; rotating characters a series that never changes it’s characters. Personally, I like development in character and world and also that we get the sense of the type of stories that can come (I’m even more impressed if later they surprise me on that one). In TL Huchu’s brilliant Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments we return to the near future ruined Edinburgh where magic is real and the Ghosttalker Ropa Moyo is only just starting to find out how her city and her world really works with a mystery that brilliantly expands both world and character setting up what I think is going to be a very very successful fantasy series. You need this in your life gentle readers.

To recap the story so far. Magic has been real and is pretty much ‘the second science’ sometime in the twenty-first century an event has happened that has knocked the world back significantly. Scotland tried for Independence and was beaten quite forcibly back. Life is hard especially for the poor who live in caravans and have to search every day for food. The world also has ghosts which is where old before their time Ropa Moyo came in doing messages for the dead on to the living. In the course of recent events, she uncovered a monster killing people and this involved her with the Society of Sceptical Enquirers and the powerful Sir Ian Callander. Demonstrating lots of potential for magic Ropa has been told she can be Sir Ian’s apprentice. But very quickly Ropa finds such a role isn’t finbancially beneficial especially when you have a young sister and ailing Gran to look after. Her friend Priya has a potentially lucrative case of a young teenager suffering what appears to be a very magical unexplained disease and a mysterious Canadian also thinks Ropa may have the skills to find a long-lost family fortune. Trying to do everything at once at the best of times is dangerous and this time it could also be fatal.

Oh goodness this is SUPERB! So tempting to leave it there but I suppose you need a little more information?

First up if you loved the way Ropa’s first person narration made the story come alive I’m very pleased to say this continues. Although Ropa is fifteen they are someone who has had to grow up quickly leaving school to look after her remaining family and those years mean we have someone with a lot of common sense, attitude and knows how to fight. Huchu has also provided a character with a sense of humour and fitting for this setting as a compulsive audiobook/podcast listener someone who can trade geek jokes about Doctor Who and Marvel but also knows history, science, and military tactics. But importantly they’re very much on a learning curve and this time the story is about Rops learning their current limitations. Rather than suddenly finding that our hero is amazing at everything and levels up like a game character we get someone who is about to learn there is so much more still to learn and understand. Ropa knows only one spell alongside their ability to summon and exorcise ghosts. They do not yet understand the Society, the city and in fact the wider world quite like they thought they knew. Here Ropa’s self-confidence is actually a weakness as they try to play various does off against one another; that magic isn’t always easy to control, and everyone has an agenda. It is refreshing to have a lead character who while awesome is still very much at the start of their journey and not an instant superhero. In many ways Roos is the perfect lead for a story set ina world that mixes past present and future to create such a great setting.

This character development really chimes with the subject of the worldbuilding in this story. This is a story about power and wealth and those who have it and those who don’t. Ropa is very much working class and with Society and the Library we soon realise there is a while magical infrastructure in this world of private magical schools; the wealthy and they don’t like to share. Ropa’s position is very much made by those taking an instant dislike to her an unpaid position and its noted how few here realise for Ropa simple things like food, medicine and safety are not automatic for everyone and this story is very much about exploring how all these factions work together or are in conflict. IT also starts to open up exactly why the UK has regressed into a more feudal system with a constantly mentioned powerful King. We definitely finish this book with a wider sense of the stakes at play for Edinburgh and Scotland and a sense that further moves for someone known as the One Above All who clearly has an agenda and the Society in their sights.

All of which is fleshing this world out and hinting at what is to come but I absolutely think the story here works too on its own two feet. We get fights in astral planes; murderous gardens and books made of dead people. We also get wrapped into Scotland’s history - you’ll be surprised at how the Royal Bank of Scotland got started and what it meant for the next few hundred years. Alongside the excellent Ropa we get the brilliant and brave Priya who never lets a wheelchair stop her doing anything and the young Librarian Jomo who is perhaps learning you can be a rebel. Let’s be clear here this is not YA this is more a series where you could argue the next generation is starting to see how the world works ands perhaps that needs to change – fairly standard in adult fantasy! Last but not least so glad to see Ropa’s Gran Melsie Mhondoro returns and beyond just being there to support the family we get firstly a sweet older aged romance begin but also a lot of clues that Melsie was once a lot more involved in magical circles than previously expected.

Overall If you loved Library of the Dead and I did then the good news is I found this an even better novel and cements what I hope to be a brilliant series. If you’ve still not read any of the books then trust me by every book I’ve ever tempted you with and do the right thing - go out and get started. This is the a reading experience that makes you punch the air and want more. Go get it!

‘Who’d have thought a fifteen-year-old lass from Hermiston Slum without no school certificates or nothing like that would get a job with them suit and tie folks? My future’s so bright I might just swap these plastic shades I’m wearing for a welding visor.’

My thanks to Pan Macmillan/Tor for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments’ by T. L. Huchu (Tendai Huchu) in exchange for an honest review.

This is Book 2 in his Edinburgh Nights series set in a post-apocalyptic future Edinburgh. We rejoin Ropafadzo (Ropa) Moyo as she enters a new phase in her life working for the Library of the Dead, under the mentorship of Sir Callander.

While Ropa adjusts to working at the Library, she is approached by her close friend, Priya, to help out with a baffling case. Priya is a healer at Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments where a new illness is presenting itself as resistant to both medical and magical treatments. The patient affected is teenager, Max Wu and if Ropa can solve the case, it might not only bring in some much needed extra income but also impress Sir Callander.

I loved ‘The Library of the Dead’ and was impressed not only with Huchu’s storytelling, world building, and characterisations but how well he had integrated both Western and Zimbabwean magical traditions into his narrative. Ropa has a unique voice and there is plenty of humour within especially in her quirky observations on life.

All of these good qualities infuse ‘Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments’ building on the strong foundation established in ‘Library’. In the course of the novel we also learn more of the events that led to this dystopian future.

Before the story opens T. L. Huchu provides a list of Principle Magical Institutions, Places (including otherworldly ones), and Characters. I really appreciate it when authors take the time to provide this kind of information.

Following the main story and acknowledgements there is an interview with Huchu in which he shares more details about his Edinburgh Nights series, including his inspirations.

Overall, a brilliant second book in an outstanding urban fantasy series grounded in the history and cityscape of Edinburgh.

Highly recommended.