Rosemary and Rue
Seanan McGuire
DAW Books, 2009
U.S. mass market paperback, first edition
ISBN 978-0-7564-0571-7
368 pages; $7.99

A Local Habitation
Seanan McGuire
DAW Books, 2010
U.S. mass market paperback, first edition
ISBN 978-0-7564-0596-0
400 pages; $7.99

It’s hard to resist a book that begins with the narrator getting turned into a carp in the Japanese Tea Gardens at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.

October Daye is a private investigator who happens to be a changeling as well. A “changeling,” as the term is used in Seanan McGuire’s urban fantasy series, is a child of mixed fairy and human blood. Toby Daye is the child of one of the Daoine Shidhe (according to the helpful pronunciation guide at the front of the book, that’s pronounced “doon-ya shee”) and a human, one of those second-class citizens of Faerie who chose to follow her fairy heritage as soon as she knew there was a difference. Not that she doesn’t live in the “real” world; she does, in San Francisco, to be precise. But San Francisco is also the location of Shadowed Hills, the court of Sylvester Torquill, the fairy lord to whom Toby owes her allegiance. In fact, Toby is a knight of that court, and was working to rescue her liege’s wife and child from a kidnapper when she was turned into a fish – in which state she remained for 14 years.

Rosemary and Rue isn’t about that kidnapping case, though. It is about Toby’s return to active duty some time after she regains her half fairy, half human shape. After 14 years as a fish, she’s quite sure she no longer has any interest in Faerie or in being a PI. She’s getting along – not happy, not even content, but getting along – as a night cashier at a Safeway grocery store. After her return, her husband and child spurned her, refusing to accept any explanations (and she was not allowed by the rules of Faerie to tell them what really happened, so any explanation she offered was a lie anyway). It’s not a good life; in fact, it’s hardly living at all. But Toby doesn’t have the psychological resources to do anything else, at least right now.

Evening, the Duchess of Dreamer’s Glass, gives her no choice, however. Evening curses Toby, almost with her dying breath, to find out who murdered her. Sure enough, Toby finds Evening dead, killed in the most breathtakingly evil way: with iron. Blood magic gives Toby a literal taste of what that death tasted like. Quickly – before the curse can kill her – Toby gets to work.

This story, combining noir mystery and fantasy, is gorgeously written and entertaining. We learn much about Faerie and its place in the modern world, enough so that we can mourn that it seems to be dying. We learn of the strict rules and caste system of Faerie, an ancient system of nobility overlaid with the technology of 21st century America. San Francisco comes alive in McGuire’s pages, its cold fog and its beauty equally alluring and appalling. The weaving of the old and the new, of Faerie and San Francisco, works very well indeed.

That’s why I grabbed the next Toby Daye novel shortly after finishing the first. A Local Habitation is, if anything, even better than Rosemary and Rue. In this novel, Sylvester sends Toby to the County of Tamed Lightning – known better to denizens of California as Fremont – to make sure that the Countess January O’Leary is doing well, as she won’t return his telephone calls. In fact, though, things are anything but normal at the offices of ALH Computing, where Faerie personnel are working on new software applications in a building that magically seems to change shape and size. Employees are dying right and left, a very grave issue in Faerie, as pure-blooded Faeries are immortal unless killed by violence or accident. As Faerie seems to be dying out, the problem is doubled; and since January is Sylvester’s niece, the problem is tripled. It soon becomes obvious that something is keeping January’s calls – and now Toby’s – from getting through to Sylvester, and the bodies are piling up.

These lively mixtures of fantasy and mystery are great fun to read. I’m still looking forward to finding out the whole story behind the case that got Toby turned into a fish, but it looks like that tale will be a while in coming yet. In the meantime, I’m happy to read whatever Seanan McGuire serves up.

The new Toby Daye Novel, An Artificial Night, is coming out in September from DAW in mass market paperback. Lucky me – I have an advance copy sitting right here, waiting for my perusal. Lucky you, faithful readers – my enjoyment of her novels led me to ask Seanan McGuire for an interview, and she has agreed. Watch this space.