Book Reviews: Heir of Uncertain Magic

Title: Heir of Uncertain Magic
Author: Charlie N. Holmberg
Genre: Fiction, Romance, Historical Fiction, Magic

What It’s About: Merritt barely can fall asleep with the communion magic in him—when he does, he is usually woken up by the trees, or animals talking and screeching throughout the night. Hulda brings him more tea at night to help him sleep, but neither are convinced that this will help him—her suggestion is for him to go to see his biological father, Nelson Sutcliffe. Hulda goes to BIKER (Boston Institute of Keeping of Enchanted Rooms) , deciding to stay there in her room while the whole organization is in upheaval due to Myra’s resignation, but first she visits Myra’s cottage, where she finds absolutely nothing to help her figure out where Myra went, beyond a bunch of letters from Myra’s acquaintances, a book that Hulda had lent her, and a telegram that seems to threaten Myra: Tell me where he is or else. She makes it to BIKER, and finds out that there are individuals from LIKER (the London one) who are here to do an audit and figure out what to do with BIKER. They introduce themselves as Mr. Walker (the one running the show, who we later find out has negligible conjuring magic), Miss Richard (an Indian woman, who is an augurist with the ability of luck) and Alastair Baille (a lawyer who is a hysterian and can manipulate people’s emotions). Hulda is then taken aside and questioned about Myra, where she could be, and even about all of the work that they have been doing. She does not reveal anything about Silas Hogwood and Myra’s involvement in that, though she gets a chance to read Myra’s resignation letter which reveals nothing. Merritt visits her at BIKER which is how the introductions are made and he asks about their magical abilities, so they provide the info.

Hulda takes him to the Genealogical Society for the Advancement of Magic, where Merritt gets introduced to Mr. Gifford. When he asks for tutors in magic, Mr. Gifford offers to help him and Merritt takes him on as a tutor, though Mr. Gifford does not have any magic in his bloodline and all that he can teach him is purely theoretical. When they return to Whimbrel house, Merritt having asked Hulda to dinner, they find that Fletcher has arrived, and Merritt realized that it’s already the date that they had decided to go up to Cattlecorn. He tells Fletcher that he’s not ready to go up to Cattlecorn, find Sutcliffe and face his parents, so they decide to postpone the visit, though Fletcher tells him that he cannot take time off at whim, whenever, as he is working in an accounting firm.

Merritt begins learning from Gifford on Magic, though he struggles to stay awake because he cannot sleep at night due to the communion. His only concern is to learn how to shut up the communion magic at night, which is where it seems to be the worst, so that he can sleep peacefully, though Gifford tries to teach him about Wardship and Chaocracy as well. Beth Taylor, Merritt’s maid is called into the BIKER offices, so Gifford goes with her, but she never returns. Hulda comes back alone to tell Merritt that Beth has been sent away. Merritt goes to complain with Hulda at BIKER, but Mr. Walker tells him that she was needed in Canada due to her specific spell set in order to give testimony on a case, so they drop it. Merritt and Hulda go on a date at the ice rink, and later they get into an argument. Merritt makes his way to Fletcher’s home after the argument, and then the two of them head up to Cattlecorn.

Once in Cattlecorn, Merritt visits Nelson Sutcliffe, who tells him that he’s known that Merritt is his son, and had hoped that his father would do to treat him well. He tells Merritt that he spent a night with Merritt’s mother, but that he was always wanted, though he always stayed away, and to make up to Merritt, he gave his maternal grandmother, Anita Nichols, the house under the guise of gambling. They talk briefly about the house, and Merritt does reveal that he has magic. Nelson tells him that it skipped him but that his half-brothers have some here and there, though it’s negligible. He also gives Merritt contacts that he could reach out to in order to find out someone to teach him how to use his magic, but asks that Merritt makes no mention of being Sutcliffe’s son, as neither his wife nor his sons with his wife know about Merritt.

Hulda, in the meantime, works from BIKER offices, and finds herself acting strange—her feelings are off while she’s in the building, like a big sense of dread. She realizes it during a walk, but then she figures out that her feelings are being manipulated by none other than Alastair Baille, the hysterian, when he talks to her and her emotions change this way and that way. She marches to meet with Mr. Walker and tells him that, to which he dismisses her concerns saying that Baille is only able to manipulate silliness. He tells Hulda to take some time and go home, so Hulda goes to see Danielle, her sister. She tells her sister everything that has happened with Merritt, and Danielle tells her to stop being so stiff—that she cages all of her emotions up behind iron bars, to the point that she’s more of a statue than anything else, but humans have emotions, and to give into them at some point. Hulda returns to Whimbrel House and cooks lunch in case Merritt comes home early, and then dinner. Merritt does come home that night, and they talk—with him explaining to her what happened with Sutcliffe, while she explains what happened to her with Baille. She also tries to loosen up, randomly sharing a story about how she was jealous of Danielle being invited to a party that she wanted to go to, and with the boy she had a crush on. Merritt is confused, but then she explains what Danielle had told her and how she’s trying to loosen up and give more of her emotions, to which he tells her that he can see her trying and he appreciates her attempts.

Hulda is at Whimbrel House when there is a knock at the door, and Baptiste opens the door to a man with a British Accent. He introduces himself as Dwight Adey, and tells her that he is a detective from the Royal Family. She takes him to the sitting room in the house, and Baptiste, Merritt and Owen follow them both, where she leaves the door open as a matter or propriety. The man questions her about her letters regarding Silas Hogwood, and she explains why she sent them—that she could have sworn she saw Silas Hogwood, but that she was told that Silas had died. Adey tells her that he is investigating it as he doesn’t believe that Silas is dead, so he wants to find out what happened to him, and then take the man back so to England, so that he can sire children. Hulda is horrified by it, but he explains that they are trying to keep the magic strong, and Silas was powerful. Hulda returns to BIKER, and Baillie questions her about Adey, which she tells him to drop and he only walks away because Miss Richards had come. Another incident with Baillie has Hulda asking him why he is manipulating her feelings, as he asks questions about Whimbrel House, and catching her when he reveals that he knows that she is seeing Merritt. Hulda goes to Mr. Walker, who takes down the notes this time, and tells her that she and Baillie have to be kept separate and working in different rooms.

At some point shortly thereafter, Merritt and Hulda had gone to Boston, leaving Owein alone with Baptiste. Owein investigates things around the house in his dog body, and then he hears a quiet snick of the front door—it’s a strange man. He follows the man, barking here and there, while the man puts communion stones in the chimney of one room, and behind a bookshelf. The man tries to shush him, which Owein doesn’t like, and he doesn’t like this man, so he traps the man in the floorboards, and then in the door using his alteration magic so that he won’t be able to leave. When Merritt and Hulda meet at the tram, Hulda tells Merritt that Baillie was out all day, so she didn’t have to deal with him. They arrive at the Island and when Merritt hears Owein’s barking, he rushes them along, where they confront the trapped man who turns out to be no one else but Baillie. He tells them that Mr. Walker is a psychometrist who lies and says that he’s a conjurer with the ability to change things to gold so that he will not have to explain himself. Baillie tells them that Mr. Walker has the ability to control people’s minds and he has been manipulating him to do all of these things, including put the communion stones around. Merritt realizes that all three of them started sympathizing with Baillie rather quickly and reminds Hulda that he’s a hysterian. They let Baillie leave as long as he leaves the communion stones behind, and both Owein and Baptiste escort Baillie back to the boat, wherever that may be. Merritt on the other hand starts fo feel out of sorts—the house seems to be spinning—so he rushes outside, and explodes with power.

He’s laying there in the grass and everything looks strange—reeds and trees are dancing, and are in weird colors. A dog comes up to him, along with a woman—but he cannot remember for the life of him who they are. The dog comes back with a letter board where he spells out FAMIL with the woman adding in the Y, and Merritt feels the rightness in that, eventually recognizing Hulda and Owein. Hulda and Baptiste haul him to his room, where Merritt recovers, and Hulda brings him tea. They talk about the whole situation with Baillie, and Hulda struggles to believe that Baillie was lying because she had a vision of him being very terrified of something when she ran into him in the hallway at BIKER and helped him pick up his papers, shortly before this incident. Merritt is happy because for once he can shut out the voices of all the plants and animals that can commune with him. He promptly passes out.

Hulda returns to BIKER and waits for Miss Steverus, the BIKER secretary, who is familiar with all of the stones for each of the eleven schools of magic. She decides to buy some azurite for psychometry, and place them around BIKER to see if Mr. Walker is really doing mind control, as well as a different stone for hysteria. As the days pass, she checks these azurite stones, to see if anything has changed. She also goes to the Genealogical Society to see if she can find information on Baillie, but there is nothing on him as he is from England. So she writes an inquiry to someone she knows in London for Baillie’s line; however, the response states that the person cannot share the line for Baillie, but that they were able to find articles for Baillie that shows that he was the one that wrote up the estate and will documents for Silas Hogwood. Baillie also was Hogwood’s defense lawyer in his trial.

Merritt and Hulda visit Marshfield, and the house in which they fought Silas. They check the corners of the house, and come across a massive communion stone, which Merritt activates. It turns out that this communion stone is being used to communicate with Silas steward, Stanley Lidgett. This leads Merritt to believe that maybe these are all matters of the estate and will—that if Baillie and Lidgett were to gain anything from Silas’s will, they would need to have a body in order to be paid out.

Hulda returns to BIKER, while Merritt goes around asking for the constable on the Island—he finds out from the wife that the man who came with Myra had retired to somewhere in the south, and that they had only moved to the town a few days after his retirement. The wife of the current constable tells Merritt that there was one man at the house that night, so Merritt goes to visit him, and the man tells him that he had gotten so drunk that he doesn’t remember much of that night, besides the fact that he and this other volunteer stood outside as they had heard there was a woman in her undergarments, which Merritt does not like to hear. Hulda connects with Merrit via their communion stone, and Merritt tells her everything, including that Silas is dead as his body was cremated. She is strongly jostled by another woman, and then goes to her room. While perusing through her bag, she finds another communion stone—this time a smaller one than the one she uses with Merritt.

Turns out it’s Myra on the other side, and Myra tells her to stop looking for her, refusing to give her the information on which of her associates had passed on Hulda’s message. They talk, and Myra reveals that Silas is in a facility in Ohio—one that does illegal work on the side, trying to advance magic through blood test and experiments; otherwise by the year 2000, all of the magic will disappear in the world. She tells her that Hulda has to get the BIKER director position, and that she has made it possible for her to find this facility, but if Baillie gets it, she will have to destroy it. She tells Hulda to not tell anyone about this—even Merritt Fernsby—and then breaks the stone. Hulda uses her communion stone to talk with Merritt and tells him everything.

The next morning she is up so early because she was unable to sleep, so she went to check the azurite in Mr. Walker’s office. Mr. Walker and Mr. Baillie walk in on her checking it, and Mr. Walker tells Mr. Baillie that he was right, pulling out other azurite stones. They have Hulda arrested on fraud, and misuse of magic. They also claim that Merritt has communion, wardship and psychometry, pulling out a lineage for Merritt that is not correct. Merritt is at home with Owein, when constables arrive. He goes to check with them about the case of his home being trespassed into, and the constables arrest him also for misuse of magic, and fraud. Owein freaks out, and Baptiste runs over to help them, but Merritt tells him to stay behind—what would he be able to do if he was arrested, as Baptiste was in jail for two years already.

Merritt finds Hulda in the cell, and they spend days together talking in the cell. He tries to keep her spirits up. In the interim, Owein and Baptiste overhear the constables talking via the communion stone—someone had accidentally activated it—and they talk about Hulda being sentenced to hard labor, while Merritt might be hanged. Owein doesn’t want to leave the island, because he’s afraid of the world out there after what Silas Hogwood has done to him, but decides that he can brave it just to save the family he has. When Baptiste points out that they are not able to bring them back in the tiny boat, Owein makes another one out of a branch, and they tow that all the way to Rhode Island. Merrit and Hulda continues sitting in the cell, and their cellmate gets pulled out, never to return. No one, however, is able or willing to tell Merritt what had happened to him though they do tell them that their trial is going to be on December 7th.

Then, they get released, after being told that their bail has been paid. Miss Taylor shows up alongside with Nelson Sutcliffe. Hulda pulls her aside and Beth tells her that she was sent to Canada, but is confused about the whole thing and apparently so was everyone in Canada confused about her being there. She explains that she had been in contact with Myra via letter, and Myra had told her what to do in order to get her transferred back to the States, but by the time she arrived last Friday, they were already in jail. She couldn’t get in touch with Myra, and had no one else to go to, but remembered Nelson Sutcliffe’s name and address as she was the one that posted the letter to him from Merritt. So she went all the way there, and explained the whole situation. Sutcliffe paid for their bail.

Suddenly the wardens come back to tell them to stop, and tell the group of four that Hulda and Merritt cannot leave as they are wanted for the murder of Myra Haigh. All of them say that it’s not possible, but they are not allowed to leave. Suddenly there is barking, and Hulda registers that Owein is there, as is Baptiste. Owein uses his spells on the walls of the prison, and they all escape, running away from the wardens. Only Sutcliffe stays behind, separating from them just after they got out of the prison. The five of them find themselves in a hovel that Baptiste found upon his arrival in America, and they continue staying there. Owein fetches papers, and Beth makes them breakfast, and posts the telegrams/ letters that Hulda writes to all of Myra’s associates.

Merritt waits at an intersection—the one that they had told Myra about in the telegrams—at quarter past 11 pm. He had come out instead of sending Beth, Baptiste or Hulda because it would not be safe for Beth or Hulda, and Hulda and Baptiste are too recognizable. Owein is with him, sniffing around. Just as they are about to turn back around 11:30, Myra shows up, and they talk. She tells him that she can read Owein, and shares the newspaper with him showing their escape. Myra tells him that she needs time to figure out what to do—she only has until December 7th—and how to do it to clear them of the charges. She tells him that she will check the light at dawn and dusk, so they can leave her the messages there, or they can send Owein, whose mind she is able to read as he is a human soul. She also gives Merritt money, stating that he probably hasn’t had a chance to go to a bank being on the run and all. She then slinks off into the shadows, and Merritt returns to the hovel, where he tells Hulda everything that transpired. Hulda believes that Myra will come through.

Owein meets with Myra alone, and they go to a courthouse, where Owein sleeps on Myra’s lap, until all of the court cases are done. Myra approaches the judge, and tells him that this accusation is incorrect, because she is Myra. He walks away to get some information saying that she will need to provide some sort of identification, and Myra leaves behind all of the details and paperwork for him to hide. Owein returns to Hulda, and Beth returns back to them with the schedule for Mr. Baillie and Mr. Walker. Hulda gets a vision that the meeting will transpire at 2:15 on Friday, which is the only time both of the men’s schedules overlap. Merritt hires two people—a man who is very chipper, and a woman who is extremely sad because she lost her husband.

On Friday, they go to BIKER and run into Miss Richards, who gets trapped by Merritt’s wardship spell, and they continue in until they pass Miss Steverus and into the room where the two men are. Mr. Walker is indignant, and when Merritt tells him that Baillie is manipulating him, he doesn’t believe it, until basically everyone starts acting—the sailor Merritt hired is extra chipper and joking, the woman keeps weeping and being depressed, Merritt is angry, Hulda is worried, and Baptiste acts intimidating, while Owein just acts loud and Beth takes note of who got manipulated and the timestamps as she is a clairvoyant. Eventually it becomes clear that Baillie is not able to keep the emotions and feelings of everyone in check, as the judge that Myra talked to shows up, and Miss Steverus adds to the confusion. Baillie is hauled out in handcuffs for having manipulated everyone, including Mr. Walker who is beyond angry with him.

Once their names are cleared, Hulda continues working in BIKER with Mr. Walker to restart the whole audit from scratch and without Mr. Baillie’s interference. Merritt heads to Cattlecorn, and he visits Sutcliffe, leaving Owein with him to chat, while he goes to the home that he grew up in. There he finds his mother, who is so happy to see him, and she starts crying because she had missed him for 13 years after his father had thrown him out and had tried to contact him, but Peter Fernsby had forbidden them to contact him. They talk and he catches her up with all of the things that had happened in his life since his inheriting of the house, while she tells him about his sisters who are both married with kids and live in different states. Peter Fernsby comes home, and doesn’t recognize Merritt from the back of his head, only once Merritt stands up does he recognize him. Peter attempts to make good on his verbal promise to throw Merritt out—having done it once when Merritt was 18–hrow him out—but comes face to face with Merritt’s ward. Merritt reveals that he knows of the bribe that Peter had paid to Ebba Mullan, and his mother is confused. Peter tells him that he’s not part of the family and that he’s trespassing, and Merritt asks him what he will do, call the constable, which silences Peter. Peter also tells him that he is not to contact his sisters and forbids Merritt’s mother to share the addresses for the girls. Ultimately, Peter has to back up in order to let Merritt out of the house, and Merritt gets him to promise him that he will not harm his mother.

Merritt finishes up his tutelage under Mr. Gifford, who gives him an updated lineage of his magic, estimating Merritt to have about 16 percent magic, and the spells of wardship, communion, and chaocracy of different types. He leaves Merritt just as Hulda and Beth come onto the Island. Hulda gives Merritt letters, and amongst them is one from his mother providing the addresses to his sisters, and telling him that they would love to hear from him. He then proposes to Hulda, and she kisses him.

My Thoughts: The relationship between Hulda and Merritt is just so cute! I love the two of them and how they both work through their problems together and apart. They’re a perfect fit for one another—helping each other through trauma and even Hulda’s stoic exterior by just being there for one another and listening to each other. Two other things that I did enjoy was Owein’s perspective on things and how Merritt went to meet his biological father and also stand up to his father. I don’t even know what I would call Peter Fernsby…what’s the right term? Anyway, I’m so glad that he did stand up to the man that bullied him throughout his whole life, and I get the feeling that the man also bullied and harmed his wife in some way though his wife, Rose, is covering for him. I really cannot wait to see what happens next for Hulda, Merritt and Owein in the series. I’m curious if Owein will stay in the dog body or he will skip into a different one, or what. I’m also curious to see how Sutcliffe, Rose Fernsby and Merritt’s sisters will come into play in the next book—if at all. Perhaps we’ll see them come to terms with truths and different revelations, but I can’t be certain. Oooh! I’m so looking forward to reading the next book in the series!