Apt to Be Suspicious, by Celia Lake

Edmund keeps busy.

He's reading Greats at Oxford, and key exams are looming. That’s nothing compared to his work the last two years of World War 2, but there are expectations on all sides. Unlike most of his classmates, he's also apprenticing in two different types of magic with their own demands and assignments. It's supposed to be a year full of learning, expansion, and making the right show with the right people to build the future he wants.

Pen is frustrated.

Being at Oxford reading maths is everything she's supposed to want. But it turns down to be rather a let down after her war work. Her time at Bletchley Park mattered. It would be different if she'd been able to find someone to talk to about her ideas around a magical approach to cryptography.

Edmund and Pen are drawn together when they independently notice several odd things that make them suspicious. It's not just the comments about people having less money, or the odd classifieds. In between the ordinary sounds and demands of Oxford's days and nights, there's something else going on. When they combine their excellent minds and skills, there's a chance they can solve the problem as smoothly as they do the crossword.

Apt to be Suspicious is set in the 1947-1948 year at Oxford University. It's full of Oxford's particular customs, cryptic crosswords, classics, and magic. Second in the Liminal Mysteries exploring the magical community of Britain after the Second World War, it can be read in any order.

A gentle Oxford romance with a hint of mystery

Set in Oxford’s magical community a year or so after the end of World War II, this gentle, slowly-unfolding romance features intelligent, good-hearted, skilled and competent people treating others with kindness and respect—a hallmark of Celia Lake’s Albion novels, and the reason I (and her other fans) love them so much. I’m not just talking of Edmund and Pen here, although they are both very much in that vein. We also see a fair bit of Council Member Alexander Landry, Master Benton, Major Giles Lefton, and Cammie Gates, and a little of Geoffrey, Lord Carillon, and his wife Lizzie (Edmund’s parents), all of whom fit that general description as well.

The mystery in Apt to Be Suspicious is subtle, almost nebulous through much of the first half of the book, and is resolved by about the 3/4 mark. What really held my attention was the delicate unfolding of Pen and Edmund’s feelings for one another. From the beginning, Pen is attracted by Edmund’s golden good looks, intelligence, and air of confidence but feels he is way out of her league; as the Heir of a posh, titled family, he would never be allowed to get serious about someone from her modest background… even if he could look past her brains and passion for maths. She expects him to be arrogant, to act superior, and is baffled when he doesn’t. Confused by the discrepancy between her assumptions and his behavior, she holds herself a bit aloof. For his part, Edmund finds Pen’s intelligence attractive and intriguing, and as the son of a highly intelligent woman (and who numbers quite a few others among his chosen aunts) has no problem with Pen being “clever in ways that I am, and ways that I am not.” He sees her quiet beauty and is quite taken with her, but offers first an alliance, then friendship, taking each step with deference to her wishes and sensitivity to her wariness. Celia Lake’s characters are always scrupulous when it comes to consent, and even before they embark on a physical relationship, Edmund checks with Pen to see what she’s comfortable accepting from him. It’s a depth of consideration I find both appealing and comforting.

I also love how Celia weaves in Oxford traditions as well as the history of British intelligence; Edmund worked for one of the intelligence services; Pen did cryptoanalysis and codebreaking at Bletchley Park (hence their tendency to be, well, suspicious of anything odd), and both are pursuing degrees at Oxford. At this point, the series’ worldbuilding is pretty extensive, with a number of recurring characters, well-developed sociopolitical, educational, and magical systems, diverse cultural and religious beliefs, a fascinating mythos, and a history that includes that of real-world Britain, but adds magical events such as the Pact (the agreement made in Richard II’s time that set Albion apart from nonmagical Britain and set up guardrails between the Fatae and the island’s human inhabitants, magical and not.) Not all of it is referenced in this novel, but it gives depth and believability to the world, particularly if you have read other books in the series.

If it all sounds appealing, you can start the series almost anywhere, including with Apt to Be Suspicious. If you would rather have more background on Edmund Carillon first, his parent’s romance can be found in Goblin Fruit. Other recurring characters have their own stories: Giles Lefton’s romance is Wards of the Roses; Benton’s is On the Bias; Alexander Landry is first introduced in Eclipse (one of my favorite books) but gets his own “it’s complicated” relationship in Best Foot Forward; and Cammie Gates is a main POV character in Illusion of a Boar, a WWII-era novel which I will be reviewing next week. If you want more about Schola, the magical school that both Pen and Edmund attended, you’ll find that in Eclipse, the novella Chasing Legends (in the collection Winter’s Charms), and The Magic of Four, a school story featuring 4 first-year students including Edmund’s youngest sister, Ros.

Challenges: (none)

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