Hetty and her husband, Benjy, were conductors on the Underground Railroad during the American Civil War. After the war, they end up in Philadelphia trying to make a life together. But often people will bring their problems to the pair. Hetty’s day job is as a seamstress, and Benjy is a blacksmith. By night, they’re unofficial keepers of the peace for their community. Hetty, also, searches by letter for her sister, whom she was separated as they fled slavery to the freedom(-ish) of the North. Hetty, as expected, obsesses about finding her sister. It consumes her and is a sore spot for her and Benjy. Though they are husband and wife, it’s a marriage of convenience for their work as conductors. One night, a caller at their door leads them to a dead body in an alley. The body belongs to one of their friends, and into the corpses chest is carved the cursed sigil. Murder with a magical warning? With the murder of one friend, all the others become suspects. The couple begins to investigate the murder, and it forces them to ask questions of their friends, themselves, and each other.

The Conductors is a cross between a historical fantasy and an urban fantasy. It’s a third person point of view novel set in a post-Civil War Philadelphia. Hetty is the main point of view character investigating the death and looking for her sister. Interludes, flashbacks to Hetty and Benjy’s time as conductors, are spaced throughout the book. These flashbacks add excellent character background and reasons for Hetty and Benjy to act as they do. However, I was expecting these interludes to tie into the present day plot. I don’t remember a single one that did. Still, these interludes are great character building moments.