The Helm of Midnight
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
An elf, a dwarf, and a man walk into a bar…. Marina Lostetter neatly side steps old fantasy tropes, fusing an innovative magic system into a plot that feels more horror/mystery than fantasy. The book jumps between three different times and characters - a young woman newly arrived to the city, a junior detective (not the title but that’s basically the role) charged with tracking down the killer stalking the streets, and the man who would become the most famous serial killer the city has ever seen. Lostetter does a solid job balancing multiple viewpoints and timelines, although she doesn’t quite solve the pacing issues that often crop up in books of this format. Occasionally we discover something with one character that another character desperately needs to know, and then we have to just…. Wait for them to eventually figure it out. If you’re enjoying the world enough this isn’t a problem, but if you prefer plot-driven books this will likely be a source of frustration.
It's interesting to me that when you look character-driven books, each author adds their own distinct tint to their universe. George RR Martin is known for populating his books with people who will do absolutely anything necessary to gain power or survive to the next day. Brandon Sanderson’s characters consistently believe they are doing what they must to save the world or protect their people. We won’t know for sure until we have more books in the series, but I think Lostetter will be known for the quality of her villains. Killer Charbon’s chapters were consistently my favorite, and seeing the twists at the end coming didn’t reduce the stress stomachache as I flew through the end of the book to find out how the final showdown would end.
The world created in The Helm of Midnight demands recognition, and the magic system is what pushed the book into 5 star territory for me. There are several layers woven together, but here are the highlights of what stuck out to me. (And by stuck out to me I mean I followed my partner around the house talking about it for a week straight.) When children are born in this world, a priest comes to take a tithe. Not of money, precisely. They collect some of the child’s time. The time is then stored, some goes to the priesthood and some is returned to the family. Gold isn’t used as currency - time is. If someone is rich enough when they’re old, they can ‘cash in’ to extend their lifespan. Time is not the only thing they’ve figured out how to store - things like emotion and knowledge have been corralled as well. The other key piece in this world is the death masks made from highly skilled individuals before/upon their death. Each mask captures all of the person’s knowledge, but if they have a particularly strong personality it can sometimes stick around as well. There is an entire economy around renting death masks as needed, and the events of the book kick off when the mask of an infamous serial killer is stolen from a party.
This is a dark and occasionally twisted book, so I paired it with the blackest cocktail I could find - The Black Widow. Much like high-effort cocktails like this one, save this book for when you have the time to savor it. The sequel doesn’t come out until 2023, so I’m going to recommend saving this to read at some point during a winter lull when you can really enjoy the ambiance.
Black Widow:
2 ounces Vodka
3 ounces Cream de Cassis
1 ounce Kahlua
1/2 teaspoon Activated Charcoal (optional)
1 ounce Ginger Beer
2 Blackberries
Add all ingredients to a mixing glass with large ice cubes and stir for 30-60 seconds. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish as desired. This cocktail was sweeter and heavier than I generally prefer, and I skipped the activated charcoal as I’ve heard it may not always be kind to the digestive system. Next time I would try tracking down squid ink for the black color, which I hope would also help cut the sweet. I might also swap out the ginger beer for seltzer to lighten it up. Let me know if you try it and what you think!
