Review of The Labyrinth Index by Charles Stross

It was time to treat myself to more candy with my next new-to-me Laundry Files novel: The Labyrinth Index continues the mission of moving beyond Bob and even Mo’s perspectives as the Laundry goes global. It’s really fun to see how Charles Stross changes up each book to keep the series fresh. I found this one a little less exciting than The Delirium Brief and some of the other entries in this series, hence the three stars instead of four.

Mhairi Murphy is our narrator this time, and she is delightful. Stross is one of the few male writers I’ve seen who can write women in the first person with a fair amount of depth and consideration, though occasionally he slips in these tongue-in-cheek, “ahh, life as a woman under the patriarchy, amirite?” moments that make me roll my eyes in a tolerant way. Nevertheless, Mhairi is certainly a different narrator from Mo, our last female protagonist. She is a PHANG, for one thing—a vampire—and in the years that have elapsed since acquiring that affliction, this character who once started as a one-note ex of Bob Howard has developed into a powerhouse of office politics, even as she tries her best not to get swatted down by the Laundry’s New Management.

Oh, spoilers for previous books, of course.

Mhairi is tasked by the new PM—who is an eldritch horror essentially installed by the Laundry’s senior management to avoid an even worse fate—to figure out what the hell is going on in America. Across the pond, everyone has apparently forgotten the president. As in, no one remembers the President of the United States is even a thing. Mhairi assembles a team, and they infiltrate the US to understand what they’re dealing with. She’s never done wetwork before, and she is terrified that if she fails to anticipate and execute the five-dimensional chess moves her boss is pulling, then she’ll be in his line of fire.

This is probably the most interesting aspect of Mhairi’s identity: of all the Laundry characters we have met to date, she is the most mutable in her goals. Her core motivation has always been survival. From her behaviour as a newly turned PHANG to her willingness to realign with the Laundry to her new job in this book, Mhairi is adaptable because she is a survivor. There’s a fascinating moment here where one of the Senior Auditors divulges to Mhairi what is really happening behind the scenes with all the contingency protocol stuff—and we don’t hear all of it, not right away, but Mhairi is like, “Whoa.” And I wonder if the SA really told Mhairi everything, or if he’s keeping some things in reserve because he knows he can’t necessarily trust her.

On a plot level, I really like the idea that a geas has been worked so thoroughly on over three hundred million people to the point that they all just forgot about an entire one-third branch of their government. As far as Laundry Files plots go, this one is pretty creative, and Stross keeps up the pressure throughout. There isn’t much breathing time or downtime for our protagonists, and that keeps the book moving.

Similarly, as the series goes on, Stross is more willing to break his favourite toys. I am impressed by how real the danger feels for some familiar faces—Brains, Pete, even the relatively new Derek the DM. I won’t comment on who survives and who doesn’t, but lt’s just say that not everyone makes it out of this book unscathed. While I will never hold that beloved characters must die to make stakes feel real, I admire when authors decide it’s the best course and see it through with such conviction.

The Labyrinth Index continues to long run of hits in this series.