Review: Once Broken Faith

By EricMesa

April 12, 2025 - 2 minutes read - 386 words

It was pretty clear to me as soon as Toby and gang developed a cure for Elf Shot that it was going to cause a huge problem with the balance of power. I don’t know how true it is, but it’s accepted knowledge that the USA and USSR having nuclear weapons throughout the cold war prevented large scale war. (There were plenty of wars, but most of them were civil wars that the USA and/or USSR gave support to - or participated in) In the same way, removal of the ability to simply send your rivals to sleep for a while would definitely cause problems.

This book has the USA west coast and southwest kingdoms participating in a conclave to determine whether or not the cure should be widely distributed. However, this is (kinda) just an excuse to allow Seanan McGuire to write a Ten Little Murder Victims story. (opening paragraph: A group of people are invited to attend a get-together, usually held at an Old, Dark House often in the middle of the countryside or (more recently) on someone’s private island, by a mysterious and/or eccentric host. Suddenly one of the guests (or even the host) is murdered and circumstances prevent the others from leaving, usually a heavy storm or a cut bridge, or even both.) All of October Daye books have been addictive page turners for me, but I love when Toby gets to go back to her detective roots.

The book ends up expanding the USA side of the October Daye universe by telling us about a bunch of the kingdoms outside the SF Bay Area. There aren’t really any other big story revelations in this book. It also benefits from the reader having read the novellas and short stories up to this point - but mostly to provide background to some of the references in this book - such as Patrick and Dianda’s first date, etc.

The novella included in the print version of this story gives us Arden’s point of view. I always find it fun to see how other characters react to the chaos that Toby springs on those around her. We also get confirmation of Toby’s theory of why she was made ambassador in the previous book.