The Good: Escaped slaves who solve mysteries in post Civil War Philly
The Bad: Slow plot, low stakes, unrealized magical system
The Literary: Slice of life of the personal difficulties of previous slaves in their new lives

After the Civil War, Hetty Rhodes and her husband Benjy settle in Philadephia, solving mysteries in the black community with the aid of their magical skills. They met after each escaped slavery, becoming conductors on the Underground Railroad, ushering other slaves north to freedom. When they find one of their own friends dead in an alley with a cursed magical symbol etched into his corpse, they must begin to suspect and reveal secrets about their closest friends and each other.

I really enjoy the mashup of historical fiction and fantasy, in this case the different types of magic used by black and white people to further emphasize the literal slavery and oppression. In this world, Hetty was born a slave with magical abilities, and in addition to working for her masters, she wore a silver collar designed to punish if she used magic, which also marked her as unfit for reproduction. Having no inherent magic of their own, whites feared the magic of blacks. Eventually, white people developed sorcery, a magic requiring waving wands about and chanting strange words, and prohibited any black person learn or utilize it.

The murder mystery is second to the exploration of Hetty's world. Only a few years following the Civil War, Hetty and her friends struggle with creating a normal life. Almost everyone was separated from a family member by plantation owners or escape, and many do not know if their siblings, parents, or even spouses are alive or dead. Some move on; some cannot. And while Hetty and Benjy press for change, many ascribe the underground railroad and pushing to vote as the reason for so much death and suffering in their community when all they crave now is peace.

Hetty and Benjy's marriage is a match of convenience. They're a great team, and enjoy one another's company, but Hetty begins to harbor romantic feelings for her husband. The possibly unrequited love is an interesting addition to the story, however, Benjy's actions towards his wife are clearly warm, even if he hides things from her. While Hetty visits her many friends, drinks tea, and catches up on gossip to investigate her cases, Hetty notes all the different types of marriages she sees among her friends, giving a ground-level female perspective of life at home.

Unfortunately, the magic itself is not so much as system as it is a highly individual interpretation of star or astrology symbols, which leaves the reader feeling rather lost about whether a charm will protect or harm the intended party. Combined from African, West Indes, and Native American folklore, Hetty's mother taught her herb brews, songs that heal, and constellation sigils. The arrow star sigil levitates objects. Orion lights lanterns. Capricorn controls water. But Taurus and Phoenix are also called as weapons, literal animals that fight.

Recommended for fans of subtle speculative fiction that explores history and race!

There us so much I could potentially love in this book. Cool Main Characters, Magic, Detective Story, Black Culture, friendship... but it just doesn’t in The Conductors like I hoped it would. There are moments in the book where it seems there are too many storylines happening at one time. By the time the author catches you up in one storyline, you bounce back into another, and you’re confused about what’s going on.

I think with a little more editing this novel could be amazing and the start of something the world has never seen before. As of right now, it’s too all over the place.

It took me a little while to get into it, but I enjoyed the interesting development of a new environment quite a bit. There were just slightly too many characters for me to get really attached to any of them, though. I feel like cutting out 2 or 3 would've made it a little easier to get into the whole storyline. Maybe add them into the sequel. Which I will be reading, although I don't know if it will be an immediate publication read.

dnf @ 22%

i received an arc from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

i was initially drawn to this book because of the reference to kindred in the synopsis. unfortunately, i was disappointed by this book.

the writing was okay, except the first 20% of this book (what i did read) was exceptionally slow. the narrative relies heavily on telling rather than showing. i don't necessarily dislike "telling" if the telling is done in a good way, but this was a bit boring.

now onto the characters. hetty and her husband find a dead body, except there was no excitement or surprise or shock or any other emotion. i felt so disconnected from the characters, especially hetty.

the magic system is interesting, but a bit vague and underdeveloped.

anyways, overall just a bit disappointing.

It seemed like a great idea to me, a historical fantasy where heroes will use constellations and legends to save others. I liked the characters of Hetty and Benjy, the plot and the story behind but I can't get hooked, it was hard for me to finish reading it.
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The Rhodes are a marriage based on years of companionship and trust. As they help free slaves down clandestine routes and solve mysterious murders, they are part of a community that they formed with each freed person they bring to Philadelphia. The character of Hetty was the one that most attracted me and I was pleased to see how the relationship with her husband unfolds while they investigate the murder of one of her close friends and learn to questioning in who you really can trust
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I like that there are more books of this type, with characters and stories with which one can connect, adding magic is a mixture that cannot be failed
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Thanks to #NetGalley and John Joseph Adams Mariner Books to let me read #TheConductors before goes on sale in March

The Conductors, by Nicole Glover, has lots of elements I’d normally eat up like a buffet: a historical setting (late 1800s Philadelphia), a focus on social injustice, a murder mystery, magic systems. Unfortunately, the elements never cohered into a story that held my attention, making the novel a real struggle. I thought about giving up on it relatively early, kept pushing through despite my instincts, probably helped by the fact that my Kindle wasn’t showing my progress despite my repeated attempts to force it to do so. Eventually, I picked it up on a different device, realized I’d hit the 2/3rd’s point, and figuring that was more than fair, skimmed through the rest.

Henrietta (“Hetty”) and Benjy Rhodes are known as “The Conductors” for their fabled exploits leading slaves from captivity into the free states via the Underground Railroad, with a number of those journeys also involving Hetty looking for her sister, lost to her when the two were separated after their own break for freedom. Now, roughly a decade later, Hetty and Benjy live in Philadelphia working as a seamstress and smith respectively, though really they spend their time employing their “Celestial” magic (the sort associated with POC, as opposed to white’s “Sorcery”) and deductive skills to solve various types of cases for their community, whose troubles are typically given short shrift (to say the least) by the white police force/legal system.

When one of their friends turns up murdered, and worse inscribed with a curse, it sets them on an investigative path that calls into question some of the people in their own little community, including some of their closest friends. The main mystery narrative is interrupted regularly by flashbacks to their conductor days, showing their early lives, how they met, how they ferried people into freedom, how their present-day community formed, etc.

As noted, the book never fully engaged me nor ever felt fully cohesive and clear. Much of the construction felt muddy, whether it was wondering why I was getting a particular scene to unclear relationships amongst people to a historic Philadelphia that didn’t feel multi-dimensional to thinly created magic systems and world building (the race-based magic never felt fully explained or mined for its potential while the way the world differed from ours due to the magic never felt fully realized), etc., I never felt grounded in story or character, never felt immersed enough to forget I was reading a constructed artifice with an author manipulating characters and withholding information. Adding to the “muddy” nature of things was the sluggish pace and the strange lack of urgency (and acuity) on the part of the investigators. Many of the key elements were conveyed via dialog that sometimes felt forced, and the concern over the killer possibly being someone that knew rang more like a plot idea than an outgrowth of characterization and world-building. Meanwhile, the prose was solid enough but not strong enough to compensate for other issues.



I never felt invested in the characters, intrigued by the murders, or immersed in the historical world, while the Celestial versus Sorcery magical systems felt like a tease of something that could have been so much more than it was. As such, it was a struggle as I said from the very start, and I most likely would have given up at the 30-40% percent point had I known I’d reached it. The exception to all this were the flashback scenes, which were vivid and vibrant, as well as compelling, tense, and emotionally fraught and by far my favorite sections of the novel. These moments give me hope that Glover’s second book might show more promise, but I can’t recommend this one.

This was a fabulous idea and I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this alternative history of the American Civil War and its aftermath. Hetty and her husband Benjy have settled in a predominantly black community in Philadelphia. The stories of their exploits helping runaway slaves are still much talked about but the couple live ordinary lives now and yet when trouble comes calling it just calls to their sleuthing nature's ! With magic and intellect on their side Hetty and Benjy try to understand why a friend was murdered but sadly that's not going to be the only body that turns up.
I thought this was a fabulous way to shine new perspective on what must have been a truly difficult and harrowing time for so many. The couple have stayed together more for convenience than anything else but it's clear they do share more than a mutual respect which cheared my hopelessly romantic heart no end. However this is not a romance and more a story of mystery and suspense. There are two distinct types of magic in play here with Celestial as embodied by the African Caribbean community which honestly was such fun to read about and Sorcery which is more the usual type in books so think wands and spells. Hetty is magnificent and up for anything. Benjy more the strong silent type but you know his brain is ticking away. They are surrounded by supporting characters who truly muddy the waters which clearly adds to the mystery. My only slight complaint was the pace because even though there are murders the first half of the book felt rather slow. However I was gripped by these characters and did really enjoy this unusual and unique story.
This voluntary take is of a copy I requested from Netgalley and my thoughts and comments are honest and I believe fair

1858. Boykin Farm, South Carolina. Hetty (soon to be Hetty Rhodes) was the best seamstress in the county. Her Mistress gained favor by lending her out to neighbors. Hetty was forced to wear a collar around her neck, a sign that she could perform magic. "The night she broke and removed her collar, she escaped with Esther [her sister] using a map and song she had memorized...Going North...We follow the stars...their luck ran out...Esther was caught. Benjy was never supposed to board the transport to safety. Benjy didn't even know Hetty's name when they set off. Hetty and Benjy Rhodes, a marriage of convenience, Conductors of the Underground Railroad, living in Philadelphia's Seventh Ward, in the aftermath of the Civil War. Hetty, relying on herself, sending letters, telegrams, and posting newspaper advertisements trying to locate her sister Esther, missing in the chaotic South.

After the Civil War, Hetty and Benjy Rhodes started to solve mysteries and murders in their community, crimes ignored by the police. They were soon to place their lives at risk to solve the murder of a friend. Do you really know your friends and neighbors? What secrets, lies or smoke screens might they erect?

XIII Amendment of 1866
"All persons...slaves and free persons of color...have the right to perform acts of magic...permitted as long as they are performed within the constraints defined by local authorities...unlawful to possess or use a wand...persons so offending shall face imprisonment no less than one day or more than ten days..."
-Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

"Sorcery was for white folks. Laws prevented anyone who wasn't white from learning...A wand in hand, a whisper of an incantation, or even a glance at a spellbook meant losing everything you held dear". Hetty's magic was "a mixture of lore brought over from Africa, from the West Indies, and even from the native peoples of this land. Mingled together, it created a magic system...that found ways to brew magic with herbs, to enchant candles for protection, to use song to rejuvenate...to develop sigils from the constellations...Sigils were even stronger once grounded on a surface...It kept the magic alive longer to be used at a later time...Hetty sewed sigils into the band at her neck...[keeping] a reserve of magic at her fingertips...at her touch, sigils unbounded themselves from the fabric".

On the night of a dinner party, Charlie Richardson sought Hetty out, concerning trouble he felt unable to handle by himself. Hetty, not in a hurry to field his request, was slow in delivering the message to Benjy. A late night knock at the door revealed a frantic man telling the duo that a drunk had been found in a nearby alley. Oh no, it was Charlie! Someone had killed Charlie Richardson with great deliberation, his well cut clothes removed and hobo like, torn clothing was substituted. What did the murderer want? Did Charlie have gambling debts? There will be many suspects, among them close friends. Hetty and Benjy are determined to try to solve the crime.

"The Conductors" is an ambitious undertaking by debut author Nicole Glover. Genre blending of history, mystery, fantasy and magic seemed to be a most difficult task, especially for a first novel. It was frustrating to this reader to try to understand how celestial magic worked. Hetty and Benjy, as protagonists, didn't appear very sharp, missing clues and proceeding at a sleepy pace. The secondary characters needed to be more fully developed. "The Conductors" was an average read. I would be interested in exploring what author Glover has planned for a future novel.

Thank you John Joseph Adams/ Mariner Books and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

"A compelling debut by a new voice in fantasy fiction, The Conductors features the magic and mystery of Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series written with the sensibility and historical setting of Octavia Butler’s Kindred. Meet Hetty Rhodes, a magic-user and former conductor on the Underground Railroad who now solves crimes in post - Civil War Philadelphia.

As a conductor on the Underground Railroad, Hetty Rhodes helped usher dozens of people north with her wits and magic. Now that the Civil War is over, Hetty and her husband, Benjy, have settled in Philadelphia, solving murders and mysteries that the white authorities won’t touch. When they find one of their friends slain in an alley, Hetty and Benjy bury the body and set off to find answers. But the secrets and intricate lies of the elites of Black Philadelphia only serve to dredge up more questions. To solve this mystery, they will have to face ugly truths all around them, including the ones about each other.

In this vibrant and original novel, Nicole Glover joins a roster of contemporary fantasy writers, such as Victor LaValle and Zen Cho, who use speculative fiction to delve into important historical and cultural threads."

YES! ALL THE YES! If writers like Nichole Glover had been around when I was younger think of how much I would have enjoyed learning about history. This entertains AND opens up a conversation. I hope teachers now are expanding their repertoire!

I really enjoyed this novel and quickly read it in two days. It’s very well written and chapters flowed easily making for an enjoyable read. I also enjoyed the hints of mystery and magic thrown in as well as all the detailed historical descriptions. All in all a must read for any who are looking for a different and new good solid historical fiction novel!

The Conductors is a fantasy murder mystery set in post-Civil War America and also has wonderful elements of chosen family and community, plus a sweet romance between Hetty and Benjy (whose marriage is one of friendship, not romance). From the moment I heard about this book, I was intrigued, and in no way did it disappoint!

Hetty is amazing and fierce and a very good example of competence porn. She’s very skilled with magic, and also at making clothes. She’s also known to meld the two together and show sigils into the clothes she makes. I love her brashness and how she stands for what she believes in. But sometimes that also gets her into trouble, especially as a Black woman who used to be a Conductor on the Underground Railroad.

Her husband, Benjy, is also an amazingly competent individual and he does so many little things for Hetty to show his care, though sometimes she’s oblivious to the significance of his actions. He followed her to lead people from slavery because he was “bored” and together they balance each other and strengthen their skills in a way that ensured they were more often than not successful on their trips. Since the Civil War, they’re known to help people with unusual incidents - like finding a body in an alleyway with a cursed sigil carved in his chest.

All of the side characters feels fleshed out and the mystery was wonderfully layered. The clues were there, but at least for me I felt like I was along for the ride with Hetty rather than figuring everything out on my own.

I really enjoyed this story, and I’m looking forward to the continuation of this series. I loved the chosen family and community especially because it shows friendships growing from common pasts and how everyone in their community will help and when they can. I definitely recommend this book if you enjoy slower paced mysteries, especially with a unique magic system.

I really enjoyed this one. I love Hetty and all of her compatriots and would definitely read on about their continuing adventures.

This was an interesting murder mystery with a magical spin. I was expecting just a little bit more from the overall writing, but I did enjoy the uniqueness of this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Excellent magical world building in history, and I loved the progression of Hetty and Ben's relationship as the story traveled backward and forward in time. Would be delighted to read another story about them!

The Civil War is over, and Hetty and Benjy are no longer using their magic and wits as conductors on the Underground Railroad, but the couple quickly discover that post war life is anything but peaceful. Death has come to their Philadelphia community, and Hetty especially is determined to discover who, in their close knit community, is responsible for the crime. Along the way, she'll uncover many dark secrets, including ones hidden by those she holds most dear.
This debut novel is an intriguing blend of history, mystery, and magic, which marks Glover as an author to make note of. I am eager to see what Hetty, Benjy, and their found family will get up to next!

This book feels like a debut novel, but not in that debut novel that knocks your socks off with its brilliance and strong writing kind of way. Instead this book feels like a debut novel that needed a lot more editing and polishing before being considered finished. This book has so much potential, there could be such a strong solid core here, but unfortunately it just does not come together in the execution. There is far too much telling, and not enough showing in this novel, that the writing just comes across as juvenile.

For me the biggest issue with this novel is that it feels like it's a second or third book in a series, instead of the first. There is absolutely no world building in this novel, and for a novel that includes magic this is absolutely crucial. There are no explained rules to how the magic system works. The author never delves into the history of the world or the magic to explain why things are the way they are. There are several references to previous cases or mysteries that the characters have solved but there's no building on the characters to make you feel like these things actually happened. These references end up feeling disconnected and hollow, and fail to develop the world and the characters.

This novel also feels extremely bloated with ideas. There was just too much that the author seemed to want to cover, but she never really spent the time delving into most of these ideas. This could have been a much stronger novel if it had left out either the fantasy elements and focused on the mystery, or left out the mystery and focused on the fantasy.

The Conductors is a riveting murder mystery that also addresses the aftereffects of slavery on family life. The majority of the characters were enslaved for most of their formative years and some of their adulthood. They conceal scars with ornamental collars and avoid discussing the families they left behind or were separated from, but the past comes back to haunt almost all the major characters. I really enjoyed the protagonist Hetty. She's wiley, stubborn, and has a flair for the dramatic, earning her a wide array of friends who it can be daunting to keep track of. Early on, readers learn that Hetty is a flawed, impulsive character, but you don't love her any less for it. She married her husband Benjy out of convenience for stability and their investigative enterprises, but there's a romantic subplot about how, after years, that dynamic starts to change. The mystery was both confounding and simple. I wasn't able to guess the end but felt like it brought the story full circle.

The magic system was fun and memorable. African Americans predominantly practice Celestial magic, which relies on hand signs, herbs, or markings to summon different guardians based on the constellations. White people practice Sorcery, which requires incantations and a wand that African Americans are prohibited from using. The setting of Philadelphia felt well-incorporated into the story. Glover name drops a few streets and local monuments.

This is a genre mash-up with a new voice. In post Civil War Philadelphia Hetty and her husband Benjy were once part of the Underground Railroad and now help solve mysteries the police have no interest in. They use the star magic that once helped them stay clear of danger while working on the railroad and the danger that is still present even in the free North. Together they are trying to solve the murder of a friend and keep a low profile which isn't easy. Just the right mix of historical fiction with the added bonus of fantasy and the use of magic. The book moves swiftly with an authentic voice and the marked tension of Hetty and Benjy's arranged marriage adds a slight romantic element.
My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.

This was a really enjoyable read with a unique magic system embedded in a historical society that we are familiar with.
The story follows husband and wife team, Hetty and Benjy, former conductors on the Underground Railroad, who are now settled living in Philadelphia after the Civil War. They use their skills with celestial magic and the skills they honed while working as conductors to help any in their community who might need it.
When a close friend is murdered, Hetty and Benjy use their skills to try and uncover they culprit before anyone else gets hurt.
I loved that this was a historical fiction/mystery story that featured a black couple as investigators, using celestial magic to help them in difficult situations.
The sense of community and friendships that Hetty and Benjy cultivated was heartwarming to see, even though some of their friendships moved in different directions as people began to move in different social circles. I appreciated this realistic representation of how relationships change and evolve over time.
Another aspect of the story i enjoyed was the progression of Hetty and Benjy's relationship, which we got to see during a series of flashbacks during their conductors days. I loved the fact that Benjy allowed Hetty to take the lead on many of their rescue missions and even afterwards. He was not intimidated by her intellect or her skill with celestial magic. There was no toxic masculinity vibes, which I appreciated.

Cannot recommend those book highly enough. If you are a fan of historical fiction with a little bit of magic, this is the book for you. Not a super in depth magic system, which I think worked perfectly here. This is more mystery than it is fantasy, with several mysteries woven throughout. A unique book with a fantastic cast of characters.