A Longer Fall – Charlaine Harris

Lizbeth Rose lives in a world in which the United States failed. The map at the start of the book tells its own story: The east coast is British, the west coast is Russian (ruled by escapees from the Bolshevik revolution), Mexico reaches a little further north and Canada reaches a little further south. Texas and Oklahoma are Texoma and east of Texoma is Dixie. (North of Mexico, Texoma, and Dixie, beetween the Rockies and the Appalachians, is New America.) The rule of law is shaky enough that Lizbeth makes a living as a gunnie - a freelance guard. Lizzie’s world feels like the nineteenth century socially and the early-to-mid twentieth century technologically.

The Russian territory has magicians - they are unwelcome or outlawed in most other places - but there isn’t a lot of magic in this story except near the end. There is a magician - Eli Savarov, her ally (and flame) from the previous book.

The book starts with a delivery of a crate to Dixie that goes very wrong. Dixie appears to have abolished slavery - and replaced it with oppression. The delivery is part of a plan to upset that apple cart. When the crate is stolen, and Lizbeth loses most of her team, she joins Savarov in his attempt to rescue the crate and the plan.

“A Longer Fall” was worth reading. Lizbeth Rose is an engaging character, and the story is well-crafted. As a part of a series, the book does not do much, and not much has changed for Lizzie. There is some setup for the next book: The love interest has gotten more interesting. Eli is in political trouble in the Holy Russian Empire, and there is an indication that Lizzie’s half-sister is in danger there.