The Starseekers

Weaving celestial magic into the history of the first crewed NASA flights, the elaborate fourth installment in Glover’s Murder and Magic series (after The Improvisers) pits Black aerospace engineer and mage Cynthia Rhodes against a conspiracy to stop the latest space launch. Super-genius Cynthia, who sleuths in her spare time, is game to tackle the mystery and enlists the investigative help of Prof. Theo Danner, an eminent marine archaeologist and her cohost on a children’s educational magic program. Cynthia and Theo pry into the secret labs at her NASA research center as well as “the most enchanted house in D.C.” to figure out who is responsible for a recent museum theft, what is making a new rocket fuel synthesized from a legendary alchemical mixture fail explosively, and how these things may be connected. As this central mystery grows ever more tangled, readers may have difficulty following along. Fortunately, Glover fills out the stage with domestic drama, the civil rights protests of 1964 America, and budding attraction between Cynthia and Theo, all of which keep the pages turning even in the more convoluted moments. Fans will be pleased to see Glover’s alternate history expanded into a new era. Agent: Jennie Goloboy, Donald Maass Literary. (Jan.)