Tags: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Drama, Mystery, Crime, Villainess

A Tale of Conspiracies and Revenge!

As light novel readers, we’ve really been spoilt for choice when it comes to excellent new series this month from the likes of series such as Magical Revolution and Vexations of a Vampire Princess (review coming soon). The Holy Grail of Eris is no exception. As a mystery series, it masterfully blends a mix of conspiracies, murder, and lots of political intrigue to create a convincing and interesting story that’ll leave you at the edge of your seat.

The series follows the story of Constance Grail, who is currently going through a bout of engagement troubles. Her fiancé has been cheating on her and his new lover has decided to take advantage of the situation, using one of her cronies to accuse her of theft. Luckily for her, someone has come to her rescue, the ghost of Scarlett Castiel, an infamous noblewoman who had been executed for the attempted assassination of the current crown princess. In return for helping Constance and her troubles, Scarlett offers a deal – help her get revenge on those who had her executed for a crime she didn’t commit. As a result, Constance is thrust into an unfamiliar world full of dangers and as they being to investigate Scarlett’s death, they reveal the seedy underbelly of a noble society filled with political strife as members of the upper-class involve themselves in murder, illicit drugs and the strange cult-like group dealing around it.

From the very beginning, this series starts strong involving both main characters together as they meet each other at Scarlett’s execution. Some wonderfully poignant visuals in these scenes end up setting Constance on her course through life. This execution is a vivid memory for Constance and has coloured her view on people, seeing the worst of humanity that day, as members of the public gleefully condemned someone who was still basically a child to death. It also likely gives her some sympathy for Scarlett, having not been involved with her actions at the time, which likely made her more open to accepting Scarlett’s view of events and the fact that she was framed.

These strong scenes continue throughout the volume when it comes to setting the overall conspiracy into place. The mystery of the series is certainly of the slow-burn variety, as the novel moves forward we’re only given small snippets as to what’s really going on. The series constantly has you guessing as to what’s coming next, constantly questioning who else is involved in the conspiracy? who’ll be the next victim? What are the cult’s overall aims? And with four volumes currently to the series’ name, the author has plenty of time to flesh these questions out. From the first volume, what we know so far sees a strong connection between this cult and the illicit drug, Jackal’s Paradise, a well-known drug that has become ever more popular in recent years. The cult also has connections between the Faris Kingdom and the Soldita Republic and is involved in the battle for the throne in Faris.

Alongside a strong story, the series doesn’t let down when it comes to characters. The nobles we meet throughout the volume all feel unique and equally villainous as a way to ensure the reader doesn’t eliminate any suspects. Particular standouts go to Deborah Darkian and her strange ways with justice and Abigail O’Brian, a protective character with fingers in many pies so to speak. However, one of the main draws of the series comes from the three main characters Constance, Scarlett and Randolph. Constance starts as a bit of a wallflower, extremely shy, timid and plain. It’s great to read how the author develops her character as the volume progresses. With the help of Scarlett, Constance develops confidence and conviction alongside her family’s motto of sincerity as she endeavours to find justice for Scarlett. Scarlett herself is more of the prototypical villainess and whilst she may not have tried to kill the crown princess, she certainly did horrible things during her life. She acts as a good source of information and a way into higher noble society. It often can act as a source of pain and reflection to Scarlett as she laments how much has changed in the ten years since her death. Randolph remains more of a mystery by the end of the volume, he has suffered due to the conspiracy, losing his first wife and one of Scarlett’s friends, Lily to the group. He seems to care for Constance his new fake fiancée perhaps more than one might expect, so it’ll be interesting to see how their relationship develops.

The volume ends on a particularly nasty cliffhanger, one of Constance’s friends, Kate, has been kidnapped by the strange group promising to cut off body parts if Constance doesn’t act soon. It wouldn’t be surprising if in the next volume we see Kate alongside another kidnapped character Ulysses, the seventh price of Faris, likely opening a path for Kate to become more involved in investigating the conspiracy in the long run.

Overall, The Holy Grail of Eris is a great example of mystery series that keeps you guessing over and over again as to where it’ll end up next. Given how the first volume ended, I’m looking forward to getting a closer look at the cult-like group as it’ll hopefully reveal some of the more major players in their organisation and their overall motives.