Thank you Netgalley for this uncorrected proof arc in exchange for an honest review.

The Conductors is a historical fiction, meets fantasy, meets murder mystery mash up with interesting characters set during a post Civil War America.
Hetty and her husband Benji are the ones people go to to solve problems and get things done that the regular authorities won’t touch. Missing children, strange magic, and murders are just a few things that are handled by this team in Philadelphia. When a friend is found murdered in an alley with a dark magical mark etched in his skin, the pair begin to muddle thru truths and lies from their friends and acquaintances, who may hold the key to solving this crime.

I was very excited to get an ARC of this book, because the premise sounded so interesting. I liked the idea of magic using star constellations, and I felt it was a very innovative aspect to a popular theme nowadays. However, I think that explaining the different magical types at almost 20% thru the book is very late, and there were missed opportunities for building the background more at earlier points.
The protagonists, plot, and characters were very interesting, and well written. However I felt like parts of the book were disjointed, and could benefit from better flow. All the elements of a great book are there, but I don’t feel it is edited in the best way for the reader to get the most out of the work the author put in. I am excited to see how the final copy comes out.

**I was provided an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for honest review.**

Nicole Glover's debut novel, The Conductors, brings magic to an alternate timeline Underground Railroad. Readers follow Henrietta "Hetty" Rhoades, who along with her husband Benjamin "Benjy", was once a conductor along the railroad guiding slaves to freedom. Now, slavery has ended and Hetty has gained a reputation for investigation. When friends begin showing up dead, who better than Hetty and Benjy to take up the investigation.

One of the big successes of the novel is the dual part magic system. White people who are magic tend to practice Sorcery, with wands and encantations and extensive formal study. The mere possession of a wand is forbidden to Black people by law. However, Black people who have magic learn Celestial magic based on sigils and constellations that seems to be highly customizable by the intent of the practitioner. I found this system to be fresh and interesting and look forward to learning more about it in the sequels.

Glover also took care with her character development so that even side characters seemed fully developed with their own motivations and secrets. I don't tend to like the "marriage of convenience" trope, but it was so well established between Hetty and Benjy. In addition, having their relationship pre-established allowed the romance of the story to truly be a sub-plot that took a solid back seat to the murder mystery. Glover also wisely included "Interlude" flashback sections which allowed readers insight into Hetty's past, frequently with Benjy, that were smart ways of providing key insight to their shared experiences and history together. Glover also included queer-coded individuals that, while not identified by modern terms given the historical nature of the book, were given care in their crafting and were present beyond that aspect of their character.

Overall, I found The Conductors to be well-paced and an impressive debut that was cleverly constructed. I very much look forward to Glover's future works.

There’s a lot to like in The Conductors, from a fascinating world to a truly appealing pair of central characters, all blending history and magic in what promises to be a thoroughly enjoyable mystery story - but the positives are let down by poor execution in several respects.

The pros:
The magic! The Celestial magic wielded by Black characters, a magic that has been passed down through generations, is an original but clear magic system. There’s also herbal magic, as well as wand-based Sorcery that’s legally exclusive to white magicians, another touch that successfully blends the historical setting with the fantasy angle - it makes for an alternate history setting that's got a lot of interest and potential.

The characters! Our detecting duo, Hetty and Benjy Rhodes, may not be very good at detecting (despite constantly telling the reader that they are), but they’re a fun pair to read about, and while their “marriage of convenience into something more” romance is a bit of a slow burn (to say the least), I did mostly buy it.

The cons:
The side characters: Some of these were a good addition to the story (Oliver was an archetype I always enjoy in murder mysteries, for instance) but there are a LOT of side characters, a lot of similar relationship dynamics (is Hetty feuding with everyone??), and they’re often part of meandering, hard-to-follow side stories, some of which do end up circling back into the main plot.

The pacing: See above, re “meandering side stories.” It takes a verrrrry long time for the plot to pick up steam (why don’t these detectives spend any time detecting??). Related to that, the revelations in the mystery unfold shakily, with long stretches of...nothing? No clues, no investigation really - and then a burst of information. It doesn't result in a very satisfying solution.

Bonus con: the writing, like the sentence by sentence, putting together of words, writing .... is clumsy. Really clumsy. Characters act inconsistently from moment to moment within the same scene, responding in just....slightly weird ways?? It made the story even harder to follow, if I’m being honest. But I’m including this as only an extra note because I had quite an early copy and given how many editable typos and errors there also were, I genuinely don’t know how much of this was changed in the final edition. I’m hesitant to rate based on this if that’s the case, BUT, the writing as I read it...feels quite unpolished.

The end result of all of this is a book that was hard to get through, but one which I didn’t want to abandon - I wanted to enjoy time in this world, with these characters, and to find out the solution to the mysteries. And future books by this author and in this series might be a big improvement as she hones her craft, as well as having a more established setting & ensemble to rely on. But it’s a rough beginning.

Thank you to NetGalley and Mariner Books for the advance review copy!