Graverobber Whiskey is the second book in this graverobber series by AM Kelly, following Graverobber Blues which I reviewed last week, and once again it follows Will Ashton and the motley crew of mages and mage-adjacents that comprise Ashland Investigations and associates. The book picks up less than a year after the events of Graverobber Blues, telling the story of an unexpected visit from a medium from overseas who seeks Ashton and Dirty Henry out for their assistance investigating the disappearance of her brother. The investigation, which feels like a bad idea from the start, ends up having unexpected consequences for all parties involved.

Thank you to the author, AM Kelly, who provided me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

This is where the spoilers start, beware!

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Graverobber Blues by AM Kelly is the first in a series that follows Will Ashton, a necromage (aka necromancer) in South Carolina who has a place at a magic school, a beautiful girlfriend, and a very big secret—that “Will” is secretly short for Wilhelmina. In order to prove to herself, her school, and her lover’s uncle that she is talented and worthy, Ashton attempts to undertake an audacious heist-slash-experiment that would elevate her reputation. Her plans are foiled by an even more audacious and talented necromage with ambitions that run counter to her own, and they go head-to-head against each other in a battle to see who can get there first that takes place entirely over the course of one South Carolina night.

This comment doesn’t really fit into the 5P structure below, but I do want to muse on it a little. Ashton is such an interesting character to me because despite being someone who is somewhat on the outskirts of society herself—in particular, being a woman who loves another woman, and being someone who has had to disguise herself as a man in order to achieve anything academically—she is so extremely dedicated to upholding and adhering to the social structures that have forced her into that position. She hates the way her lover, Rosheen, is spoken to and treated as a woman and a healer, but then turns around and admonishes Dirty Henry for behaving rudely to his social betters. Even when things start to really break bad in the story, Ashton seems convinced that she can just go to the dean of the university and tell him and he’ll take care of everything, seemingly without considering that the dean of the university represents the exact academic system that rewards the privilege of money and gender. Another character in the story, J.P., is a former Underground Railroad participant, and Dirty Henry’s wife is Black and his son is biracial, and Ashton does seem to understand that racism is a symptom of a fucked-up society. But also, Ashton is a white woman pretending to be a man in pursuit of academia, and because her race and her (assumed) gender grant her the privilege of chasing that goal, she seems unwilling to really do anything to challenge the status quo and in fact devotes quite a bit of time to trying to convince people who are decidedly below her on the social pecking order that they should fall in line too. This could honestly be a really interesting angle for Ashton’s character development, as it becomes increasingly apparent to her that continuing to adhere to these social mores is not only not going to have the outcome she wants, but will also be actively damaging to the people she’s growing to care about, so I’m interested in seeing where AM Kelly will take it in future books.

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