Letty Parker and her friends are growing up. Already she is fonder of her old friend Jeb than she wants to admit. But trouble is in the air. Gabriel, their half-human ally and son of Count Nicholas, leader of the Dark Ones, sets out on a journey to discover his heritage as one of the Nephilim. Though he believes it safe to leave his human friends behind, things are not as they seem…
Hepzibah Harrington, Letty’s long-time friend and part-owner of shipping firm Harrington and Company, finds her redoubtable Aunt Beulah behaving out of character. Dressed to the nines, she is simpering in the presence of sinister Mr Murkstone, who has appeared as if from nowhere and claims to be Hepzibah’s legal guardian, her other guardians having fallen sick or died.
Murkstone is a truly gruesome Dickensian villain, who is soon trying to marry off his sickly ward Tom to Hepzibah. And he forces her to hand over the day-to-day running of the business she had been managing in the absence of her wayward brother Simeon. Tom himself seems to be under a kind of spell, as if he were a ghost.
Another mystery: strange, white ferret-like creatures are appearing on the streets of Bristol. They understand human speech and are being used as spies by someone – but who?
Letty and her friends at Letty Parker Investigations are not without allies as they find themselves facing possibly their biggest challenge yet. Letty receives a desperate message from her mother, feckless opera-singer Bella, last seen heading for Moskovy with her new beau, Count Zopolsky. Letty feared the blue sapphire ring Bella wore on her finger was cursed. When Hepzibah gives Letty a passage north on the Vareena, one of her ships, Jeb learns that Letty is heading into a trap. He tries to stop her from sailing, but is attacked before he can reach the docks. Letty sets off alone, unaware that she is in deadly peril, while her friends, especially Hepzibah, find themselves facing equal danger on their home turf.
This is a cracker of a story. Letty remains my favourite character, but Hepzibah is a faithful friend, and there is a gallery of grotesques and gargoyles, from the creepy Mr Murkstone with his hair pomade to the sinister Captain Novotny of the ship Vareena, and the mysterious coach driver Homunculus Ridden, who only appears in times of need. The names alone are wonderful, and Misha Herwin evokes a magical world of landscapes and people as Letty travels into the unknown. Most mysterious of all is the Ice Angel herself. Who is she, and is she good or evil? What are her motives? The reader is kept in suspense until the last page.
shamansland 
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