Apt to be Suspicious

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Out on November 7th, 2025!


Edmund keeps busy.

He's reading Greats at Oxford, and key exams are looming. That’s nothing compared to his work the last two years of World War 2, but there are expectations on all sides. Unlike most of his classmates, he's also apprenticing in two different types of magic with their own demands and assignments. It's supposed to be a year full of learning, expansion, and making the right show with the right people to build the future he wants.

Pen is frustrated. 

Being at Oxford reading maths is everything she's supposed to want. But it turns down to be rather a let down after her war work. Her time at Bletchley Park mattered. It would be different if she'd been able to find someone to talk to about her ideas around a magical approach to cryptography.

Edmund and Pen are drawn together when they independently notice several odd things that make them suspicious. It's not just the comments about people having less money, or the odd classifieds. In between the ordinary sounds and demands of Oxford's days and nights, there's something else going on. When they combine their excellent minds and skills, there's a chance they can solve the problem as smoothly as they do the crossword.

Apt to be Suspicious is set in the 1947-1948 year at Oxford University. It's full of Oxford's particular customs, cryptic crosswords, classics, and magic. Second in the Liminal Mysteries exploring the magical community of Britain after the Second World War, it can be read in any order.

Content note details
Deals with finding a place in the world with after World War 2. Both main characters (and others) have secrets. Use of manipulative magic in a necessary and beneficial cause. A great deal of academia (explanation linked from the beginning of the book for people who aren't sure about getting it from context).

Available on:
Genres:
M/F

Tags:
1940s, Class and class differences, Education and research, Family - Carillon, First relationship, Gentle, Mentorship, Post-War, Secrets

Begins: 1947-09
Period: Post-war (late 1940s)
Romance: M/F, First relationship
Content notes: Click here to reveal

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Apt to be Suspicious is a deep red-wine purple. A silhouetted man poling a punt and a woman, her back to the viewer, watching him, are framed by ivy and swirling magical stars.
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Showing books 1-11 of 11

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(My authorial wiki has additional information about characters, connections, and places.)

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Content notes: Click here to reveal

Apt to be Suspicious is a deep red-wine purple. A silhouetted man poling a punt and a woman, her back to the viewer, watching him, are framed by ivy and swirling magical stars.
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Showing books 1-10 of 10

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