***** 5 out of 5 Stars
Review by: Mark Palm
Mirrors inside Mirrors.

The Oversight by Charlie Fletcher was one of my favorite book of 2014, so I was seriously anticipating the second book in the series. Well, I just read The Paradox and I was not disappointed! To give you some background The Oversight was set in mid-nineteenth century England and was about a mystical organization that protected humans from the evils of the Supernatural world, and the people and creatures out to destroy the group. The novel was about magic and the supernatural, but was firmly grounded in reality with believable, three-dimensional characters and a taut and exciting story. The Paradox picks up the story and continues it beautifully.

Mr. Sharp and Sara are in the world of mirrors, searching for each other. Their places have been taken by Charlie and Lucy, who are being trained by The Smith, Cook and Hodge. While the newcomer’s learn the ways of the Oversight we are also following Amos, the ghost, and the Slaugh, as they trek across the length and breadth of Britain, as well as the Templebanes, and the Citizen, who are still trying to destroy the Oversight and its members. It might seem like a lot to follow, but Mr. Fletcher does a sterling job of making the the various storylines interweave and inform each other, and as our knowledge of this world increases so does the moral and ethical dilemmas of the characters out in the world, a motif that is subtly echoed in Mr. Sharp and Sara’s sojourn in the world of mirrors, which is at once terrifying and touching. The rest of the Oversight have to face the charge that they have lost the balance that they are charged to protect, and may have favored their human charges to the detriment of the Supernatural world, which adds richness and depth to all of the characters. Mr. Fletcher also gives us a wider view of his world as he introduces Caitlin, an irrepressible Irish woman who hunts Changelings on her own, and two other “Hunters”, Otto and Ida, both from Bavaria. All of these characters are rich and varied, and we see their world through multiple point a view, a technique that Mr. Fletcher pulls off with aplomb.

The tone of The Paradox is a bit darker and more elegiac than the first book, but it should, because the fate of the world is teetering on the brink. Like it’s predecessor one of the main strengths of this novel is its mix of gritty reality and imaginative fantasy, next to each other cheek-by jowl, each enforcing and playing off of the other. A perfect example of this is in the Mirror world, where space and time seem to have lost meaning, but the physical realities of Mr. Sharp and Sara’s trials are almost punishingly visceral.

You can read this book as a stand-alone, but I think that you should not. It’s rare to find two such splendid novels that fit together seamlessly, and tell such a powerful story. If I had to nitpick a bit I could say that The Paradox is a bit too much of a “second” novel in that even though the end is satisfying it’s still obvious that there is a lot of the story left to tell, but that would be nitpicking, and these two novels deserve all of the praise and attention that I can give, so do yourself a favor, and start reading; you won’t be disappointed.

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