Review: Sorcery on the Sunset Express

Sorcery on the Sunset Express by Ronald D. Ferguson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: I requested and received a copy from the author prior to publication. We are members of the same writers' forum, where the author posted asking for readers for his upcoming book. The author explicitly stated that there was no expectation or obligation for a review.

This is a solid, enjoyable story set in an alternate North America (mainly Texas, but also Louisiana and New Mexico) in 1907. The background is that Southern wizards managed to stalemate the American Civil War and (in some way that isn't explored) transform the Confederacy into the Southern Alliance Monarchy; Texas and California are independent republics, and there is still a USA, just a smaller one. The alternate-world setting isn't just decoration. It introduces rich and powerful people who are also foreign nobility, warranting an extra layer of caution in dealing with them, and it enables the author to have both the technology of 1907 (telephones and cars - the latter more plentiful, if anything, than in our 1907) in the cities, and a version of Texas that's more like the untamed West of much earlier times in its outlying districts.

The status of slavery in the Southern Alliance Monarchy wasn't clear to me, but it's illegal in Texas, and the main characters are careful to treat the black people they encounter (serving as stewards in Pullman cars - there's a lot of train travel, as the title implies) with respect. I did find it slightly unlikely that, in the first decade of the 20th century, a young woman of respectable background would routinely travel in the same sleeper compartment as her male colleague; people do assume they're an unmarried couple, which they're not (though there are plenty of hints that he admires her considerably), but nobody acts as if it's scandalous or tries to stop them, even though there are mentions of a strong influence of Baptist morality in the Republic of Texas. Both the characters have a Baptist background, too.

Their background, in fact, is strong overall. Brandi, the female partner, has ended up as a consulting detective in part because, when she tried to study advanced physics at a university, she was told that there was no place for a woman to do so, and found herself pushed into a job as a second-grade teacher. Her father is a doctor, and she's learned some things from him. She's capable, highly intelligent, and definitely the Holmes of the pair. Unfortunately, she's also very sharp-tongued, given to lecturing her unfortunate partner Jerry not only about things he's ignorant of but also about his behaviour, which is that of a working-class Texan from a difficult family background who had to drop out of college when he was injured and lost his football scholarship. His father was a drunkard, a womaniser and a wife-abuser who pretended to be a preacher in order to get money for his other activities, meaning the family moved around a lot until he finally left his wife and son; the mother, abandoned not only by her husband but by a self-righteous congregation, struggled for a while and then died while Jerry was still a teenager. He's since been a Texas Ranger, a job he was thrown out of for taking a principled stand that wasn't politically acceptable to his bosses, and came very near to getting him lynched in the prologue.

This is a lot more character development, and a lot more worldbuilding, than I often see, though admittedly I've been reading cozy fantasy lately, which is notably weak on both of those things. Still, it means that there's some heft to the events the characters get caught up in. There are a number of violent deaths, some of innocents; serious threats and tension; and a twisty mystery to unravel.

The main mystery involves the theft of payrolls being securely (or so one would think) transported by train, watched constantly by guards, but when the train arrives at its destination the money has somehow vanished from the locked safe - not once, but multiple times, despite elaborate precautions being taken. There are also secondary mysteries, including a couple of murders.

The method of the heists is clever, and the process of solving the case entertaining, and the action scenes well described. The time and place are competently evoked, and the characters are memorable and have dimension. I recommend it.

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