Closer to the Chest (Mercedes Lackey)

Herald Mags, the King of Valdemar’s Herald Spy, has been developing a clandestine network of young informants who operate not only on the streets of the capital city of Haven, but also in the Great Halls and kitchens of the wealthy and highborn. In his own established alternate personas, Mags observes the Court and the alleys alike, quietly gathering information to keep Haven and the Kingdom safe.

His wife Amily is growing into her position as the King’s Own Herald, though she is irritated to encounter many who still consider her father, Herald Nikolas, to be the real King’s Own. Nonetheless, she finds it increasingly useful to be underestimated, for there are dark things stirring in the shadows of Haven and up on the Hill. Someone has discovered many secrets of the women of the Court and the Collegia— and is using those secrets to terrorize and bully them. Someone is targeting the religious houses of women, too, leaving behind destruction and obscene letters.

But who? Someone at the Court? A disgruntled Palace servant? One of the members of the Collegia? Someone in the patriarchal sect of the god Sethor? Could the villain be a woman? And what is this person hoping to achieve? It isn’t blackmail, for the letters demand nothing; the aim seems to be the victims’ panic and despair. But why?

Mags and Amily take steps to minimize the damage while using both magic and wits to find the evildoer. But just as they appear to be on the verge of success, the letter writer tires of terror and is now out for blood.

Mags and Amily will have to track down someone who leaves few clues behind. They must thwart whatever plans have been set in motion, and quickly—before terror turns to murder.

I received a review copy of this book from the library, the publisher.

Review

Closer to the Chest continues Lackey’s Herald Spy series, and it left me with mixed feelings. On the positive side, I enjoyed spending more time with Mags and Amily, and seeing Amily take an increasingly active role as a Herald. And Lackey is a pretty good storyteller, balancing action with details that immerse you into the world and the characters’ experiences.

But the negatives almost outweighed the positives for me. For one thing, the book delivers a timely but heavy-handed message about patriarchy, mysogyny, the misuse of religion, and the role of women. I agree with her in large part, though I lack her cynicism about religion, but it’s not necessary to practically bludgeon your reader with your point.

The other thing that really bothered me is the story’s internal logic is questionable. An inordinate number of people are let into the secret that Mags is both a Herald and a spy… this despite several explicit reiterations of the adage “two people can keep a secret if one of them is dead.” If just one of them chose to betray him, or were captured and tortured, Mags’s undercover identity would be compromised and his life could be in danger, yet he doesn’t hesitate to trust quite a few people with the knowledge.

Finally, the book, or rather this trilogy, introduces a major series inconsistency. Rolan, the Companion to the Monarch’s Own, can mindspeak to Amily, who doesn’t have human-to-human mindspeech. Her Gift (animal mindspeech) isn’t as strong as Talia’s empathic Gift in the Arrows of the Queen trilogy. Yet somehow Rolan can mindspeak to Amily when he is bonded to her, but not to Talia when, centuries later, he Talia’s Companion? That’s the sort of inconsistency that drives me nuts as a reader. I realize it’s hard to keep things consistent in a series written over several decades, but Talia’s inability to hear Rolan’s thoughts is pretty significant in the Talia series (which was written first), so it’s irritating to see that Lackey breaks with her own canon here.

I haven’t given up on Lackey, and I enjoyed this third book in the trilogy almost as much as I did the second book (and more than the first one.) But I do miss the earlier Lackey, whose books had a bit more meat and depth and (I suspect) better editing than I’ve seen in the last 10 years or so.

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

• Blogger Shame Challenge 2018

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