Shadow of a Doubt: A Mirabel Sinclair Mystery

Shadows of a Doubt by Jeff Reynolds

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This is a solid alt-hist, urban fantasy that just couldn't resist the temptation to engage in racist virtue signaling. The annoyance factor of the racism tainted the book, ruining whatever enjoyment I might have found.

The book is set in an alternate Baltimore, which is the capital of the United Territories of Coventine. The UTC is a magical world with elves, goblins, trolls, etc., where magic works. On the other hand, the UTC seems to cover a large part of our version of the United States and there are things like the Catholic Church. No explanation is given for how this history developed, or what Coventine is and why it is “United.”

I like alt-hist, which is why I found the author's approach annoying. Part of the fun of alt-hist is to look under the hood and see how the world developed. How did a Catholic Church exist in a land where there are Elves? How did England take-over the New World in the face of magic? How does magic interface with the history that had to have happened to get something so similar? However, we don't get any of this in this story. Instead, it is all just postulated as if it made sense, which it doesn't.

The story involves Mirabel Sinclair, who is a young, orphaned, lapsed Catholic, WHITE, closeted-lesbian woman who is learning the private detective game. She's hired to find the Goose that Lays the Golden Egg. Then, her mentor is killed and the inevitable supporting characters drop everything to advance the plot, which involves oppressed witches fighting bigotry.

In other words, it is basic urban fantasy and not bad at that. It's perhaps a bit cliched, but cliches are cliches for a reason. I found the book to be a bit too long in developing the story. However, as an urban fantasy, it was solid journeyman work.

What destroyed the book for me was the anachronistic Woke virtue-signaling where “white” is a pejorative term meaning something akin to “bad,” “bigot,” “narrow-minded,” and/or “oppressor.” The book revels in a scheme where there are whites - bigot, oppressor, bad - on the one hand, and the underclass of elves, goblins, native-Americans, and blacks. This two-dimensional ideological schema popped its head up whenever it was able. For example:

“He'd spent seven years off and on in the Baltimore West correctional facility, housed with the rest of the violent non-human offenders—including blacks, I thought with disgust...“

Reynolds, Jeff. Shadow of a Doubt (Mirabel Sinclair) (p. 32). Trollbreath Creations. Kindle Edition.

“The spectacles and hat did little to hide his features. Not that there was anything wrong with being a troll, but most didn't flaunt it given the bigotry from white folks.

Reynolds, Jeff. Shadow of a Doubt (Mirabel Sinclair) (p. 6). Trollbreath Creations. Kindle Edition.

“Church. He kept bringing it up, and I kept avoiding it. The endless sermons about the evils of elves and trolls, gnomes, pixies, all the other races, how they lacked an immortal soul. The not-subtle implication blacks were another race, too, as well as the great nations of peoples who lived here before we came. Brown skin, differently shaped eyes, it didn't matter the physical categories. Anyone not human, not white, were included. Although yes, father Gregory didn't preach such racist tripe, nor had sister Mary Margaret or the nuns within Saint Brendan's orphanage. But I avoided them all on general principle. Ingy believed in a world spirit, and that appealed to me more.

Reynolds, Jeff. Shadow of a Doubt (Mirabel Sinclair) (pp. 17-18). Trollbreath Creations. Kindle Edition.

“most white landlords in Baltimore wouldn't rent to blacks. Oh, they'd rent to me, a good Catholic white woman,

Reynolds, Jeff. Shadow of a Doubt (Mirabel Sinclair) (p. 21). Trollbreath Creations. Kindle Edition.

“A slumming white girl with her friends,

Reynolds, Jeff. Shadow of a Doubt (Mirabel Sinclair) (p. 109). Trollbreath Creations. Kindle Edition.

“The elves were notorious in their hatred of other races. They weren't racist against other elves, so there wasn't a barrier of color like here. They simply hated anyone not of pure elvish blood.

Reynolds, Jeff. Shadow of a Doubt (Mirabel Sinclair) (pp. 176-177). Trollbreath Creations. Kindle Edition.

“You know the authorities would have hunted me down like a dog and strung me up by the neck. Gnome kills white woman plays well in the newspapers;

Reynolds, Jeff. Shadow of a Doubt (Mirabel Sinclair) (pp. 191-192). Trollbreath Creations. Kindle Edition.

So, there you go - even in alt-hist fantasy land, “whites” are tainted by the original sin of racism, unlike everyone else, including the Elves who at least don't discriminate against other elves.

This is anachronistic and weird stuff for the 1930s. There was a lot of prejudice going on back then: the Jews looked down on the Irish; the Protestants looked down on the Catholics; Everyone looked down on everyone else. As a Catholic in America, this woman's “white” bona fides in the 1930s were hanging by a thread as can be seen in the recent campaign against “Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion,” assuming Al Smith ran for president in this world.

So, what we have here is a modern political ideology.

I don't read escapist books so that an author can ignorantly virtue signal. I practice civil rights law for those who have their civil rights violated and I don't like racism, no matter who is the target. In this case, stereotyping “whites” is racism, and it annoys me just as much as stereotyping blacks, Hispanics or elves would.

I also groaned whenever Mirabel expressed her desires for her life-long friend. Of course, we had to have lesbians somewhere. I can't watch a Netflix show today without lesbians and transexuals. It's de rigeuer these days to have such aspirational relationships, which is probably why so much of pop culture is dying, namely, the product is not being designed for anyone outside of a tiny market.

Why should I care if two women get it on together? Altruism? As a guy, I don't identify with either of the characters in this tale of unrequited love. I take this as another sign that the author is not writing for the 99% of the market that isn't composed of consumers of woke virtue-signaling, and, as such, I shall absent myself from future installments of this series.