The Legacy of Arniston House by T.L. Huchu: Review by Colleen Mondor

The Legacy of Arniston House, T.L. Huchu (Tor 978-1-250-88309-4, $29.99, 400pp, hc) November 2024. Cover by Leo Nickolls.

When I sat down the week before Christ­mas to review The Legacy of Arniston House, the latest in T.L. Huchu’s Ed­inburgh Nights series, I had all four of his books stacked up beside my computer. I began reading the series just after Thanksgiving and quickly blew through the adventures of teenage ghostalker Ropa Moyo as she navigated her way amidst the politics and peril of a posteconomic catastrophe Scotland. This slightly altered world that is still extraordinarily close to our own (for example you will have no trouble figuring out the members of the royal family), includes not only the ghosts that Ropa makes her living communicating with, but also some more terrifying magical creatures who are lurking about Edinburgh’s streets. If that was not upsetting enough, there is a continuous power play between the English and the Scots magic societies that, as Ropa learns over the four books, has resulted in a lot of people making a lot of bad choices. To stay alive, she has to keep her wits about her and form a series of alliances that are not always as successful as she hopes. She also has to solve some mysteries starting with the suffering of children in The Library of the Dead and carrying on through the demonic possession of Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments, the locked-room theft and murder in The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle and leading up to the antics of a magic-wielding cult in The Legacy of Arniston House. To say that I am all in on this series would be a vast understatement. I loved every word of Huchu’s novels and cannot wait to see what happens next.

While each book has a standalone mystery to solve within it, the overarching story demands they be read in order. Ropa begins to learn about Scotland’s magical bureaucracy in Library, but its vast reach, and where it collides with England’s own ideas about magical supremacy, is explored throughout the series. As Ropa becomes an un­paid intern/incredibly busy assistant to Scotland’s leading magician, who is a mighty force within that country’s Society of Skeptical Enquirers, she learns firsthand how arrogant the magicians are, and how petty, judgmental, and lazy they have become in their arrogance. Along with her friends Jomo and Priya, Ropa uncovers secrets, foils plots and saves the day more than once. But her victories are not always celebrated, especially when she reveals that some of the bad guys are connected to the magical elite. In The Legacy of Arniston House, when murder hits close to home and Ropa finds herself accused and running for her life, everything she has learned in the previ­ous three books comes together. It’s also where Huchu throws some stunning twists at his readers, and they will find themselves turning pages with increasing speed to find out if really, truly, things are as bad as they seem. (Spoiler: They are, but never lose faith in Ropa!)

It is nearly impossible to write about the specif­ics of Arniston House without ending up with a review knee-deep in spoilers, but I will say that we find out just how small the pool of people Ropa can trust is. She also discovers that the fallout from the events of The Mystery in Dunvegan Castle is more traumatic and long lasting then she could have imagined. While I don’t blame Ropa one bit for being fed up with the Scottish magicians after reading that novel, she’s definitely in a bit of “frying pan/fire” situation as the latest book opens. Then things get worse (really worse). But through all of a racing plot, her ability to com­municate with ghosts proves to be significant and lasting and the thing that saves her when all hope seems lost. (There’s a lesson in here about never forgetting where you come from, no matter how dazzling the new digs might seem.)

There is so much to love about this series! Ropa’s attitude is a force to reckon with, and Huchu brings her alive on the page with plenty of snappy language, bold declarations, and more than a few moments where she says it like it needs to be said and you will want to cheer. (The pop culture refer­ences she trades with friends are all over the place – how do you not enjoy characters who celebrate Jessica Fletcher at one moment and compare someone to a Soviet T-35 heavy tank in another?) Ropa’s vulnerability as a ghostalking teen strug­gling to support her family is evident, and Huchu never loses sight of the fact that she is only fifteen years old and a lot of adults are making messes that she is stuck cleaning up. More than once she is utterly mystified by the dangerous things adults will do to possess power, and her occasional panic attacks are not only understandable but to be expected. As she finds herself the voice of reason whom few will listen to in Arniston House, read­ers will share Ropa’s frustration. The fact that all of the bad decisions are believable makes Huchu’s narratives that much more impressive, although I wish I could say that no one would be as foolish as the magicians of Scotland turn out to be. (But yes, we can see powerful people making exactly these sorts of calamitous choices.)

Perfect for teens and adults, the Edinburgh Nights series just gets stronger with each book. There is a MASSIVE cliffhanger in the final pages of The Legacy of Arniston House, and readers will be desperate for the fifth and final entry, Secrets of the First School, due in October. I have no idea what the fallout will be for Ropa from this title but cannot wait to find out. (The backstabbing! The nefarious lying! The cow­ardly behavior by those who should know better!) What a great group of books these are, and what fun to read them and share them with others.

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This review and more like it in the February 2025 issue of Locus.

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