JUNIPER WILES DOES NOT WANT TO BE QUEEN

Reviewed by Steven H Silver

Over the course of the first two Juniper Wiles, Charles de Lint has established that Wiles' television series in which she portrayed amateur sleuth Nora Constantine, was a thing of her past. She had no interest in revisiting the role, even for the short time of attending media conventions. In Juniper Wiles Does Not Want to Be Queen, de Lint turns this part of her character upside down when Wiles is visited by Mother Crone who warns her that while attending a media convention with her former cast mates will be bad, not attending would be even worse.

When the comic convention is attacked by a blood witch and her elemental allies who freeze most of the attendees, Wiles must return to her role as a special investigator for Newford's Spook Squad. Although she can rely on Christiana, Jilly, and Captain Cray, once she follows the blood witch to another realm, she is mostly on her own, quickly finding locals to help her, but also placing herself in greater danger and she learns that the blood witch is further allied with Simon Laguerre, a powerful criminal whose fingers and in drugs, weapons, and child prostitution. A recurring theme in de Lint's work is the need to protect the powerless and children, particularly exploited ones, are in need of protection. Wiles vows to rescue the children even before she has any of the details of the situation.

In Juniper Wiles and the Ghost Girls de Lint demonstrated that Wiles was willing to do whatever it takes, giving her story a dark turn. De Lint is goes even further in this third outing. Juniper Wiles Does Not Want to Be Queen reminds the reader that de Lint has written straight horror under the name Samuel M. Key. It also reminds us that in a world of blood witches, elementals, and magic, the worst monsters, the real monsters, are human. For all that, there is never really the feeling that Wiles is in danger. The horror is not about what happens to her, but rather what she will discover and to what extent de Lint will share those discoveries with the reader.

Wiles demonstrates complete confidence in her abilities no matter what she is facing, whether it is a criminal with an army at his disposal, a blood witch whose magic stymies Christiana and Mother Crone, or elementals. Even when she comes across the ghost of an FBI agent killed while working undercover, she is positive that her training and ability to speak to ghosts will see her through. De Lint builds tension based on whether her confidence is misplaced and at times it seems like Wiles doesn't fully understand the import of what she is undertaking, instead just relying on her confidence and abilities to help her through, no matter what the evidence of the likelihood of that is.

Juniper Wiles Does Not Want to Be Queen is a story of good conquering evil. Although de Lint avoids prurient details, the story feels especially timely and poignant given the current coverage of the crimes committed by Jeffrey Epstein and its parallels to Laguerre. In many ways, Juniper Wiles Does Not Want to Be Queen is an uncomfortable story, forcing the reader to consider the evil in our own world, unable to hide its existence behind a veneer of magic, even as the novel is filled with the supernatural.

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