The Conductors
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- £1.99
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- £1.99
Publisher Description
FILM RIGHTS NOW OPTIONED BY QUEEN LATIFAH
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'An Underground Railroad - but with magic' P. Djeli Clark
'...a delightfully genre-bending debut' Tananarive Due
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Meet Hetty Rhodes, a former conductor on the Underground Railroad who now uses her magic to solve crimes in her community in a post-Civil War world.
As an escaped slave, Hetty Rhodes helped dozens of people find their own freedom north using her wits and her magic. Now that the Civil War is over, Hetty and her husband, Benjy, still fight for their people by solving the murders and mysteries that the white authorities won't touch.
When they discover one of their friends brutally murdered in an alley, Hetty and Benjy mourn his loss by setting off to find answers. But the mystery of his death soon brings up more questions, more secrets, more hurt. To solve his death, they will have to not only face the ugly truths about the world but the ones about each other.
Perfect for fans of Victor LaValle and Zen Cho, The Conductors is a compelling debut by a fresh voice in fantasy fiction that will leave you longing for more.
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'... a wholly original and thoroughly riveting story... an unforgettable debut' DEANNA REYBOURN, New York Times best-selling author of A Murderous Relation
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Inventively mixing mystery, magic, and alternate history, Glover's nail-biting debut takes readers to Reconstruction era Philadelphia. Henrietta "Hetty" and Benjamin "Benjy" Rhodes both adept at sigil magic that draws on the constellations are famed conductors for the Vigilance Society, which shepherded enslaved Black people to freedom along the Underground Railroad. Stories of their trips into the South are legendary in their Philadelphia community even a decade after the Civil War. Now, Hetty and Benjy use their magical and analytical skills as detectives, dealing with missing person cases, murders, and other crimes the white police force chooses to overlook. But when one of their friends turns up dead and their suspicions fall close to home, they'll need to work out who in their community is not who they say they are. The pace is relaxed but the tension steadily builds as Glover weaves each detail into a satisfying mystery. Frequent flashbacks to Hetty and Benjy's thrilling exploits as conductors on the Underground Railroad reveal how Hetty's tough choices during the Civil War led to her life today. Readers will be surprised but gratified by an ending that shows just how past actions inform the present in unexpected ways. Glover is a writer to watch.
