History Literature / TheRook

* BestWoman: A non-wedding version of this is mentioned in Myfanwy's notes on the history of the Checquy; due to the habit of naming the main leaders of the Checquy "Lord" and "Lady", at one point the only valid candidate for the title of "Lady" was a six-foot-tall mountain of a man with a thick red beard who stubbornly held onto his position even when he had the chance to become the new Lord instead, remaining the Lady until his death.

* ScrewYourself: [[spoiler: Gestalt again. Gestalt does have a reason for it though, as a baby whose parents are both part of Gestalt will itself also be part of Gestalt, making Gestalt potentially immortal.]]
* ShockAndAwe: Lynette, one of the main character from Blitz discovers that she can charge metal objects with red-colored electricity. There have been others over the centuries who can use electricity in a variety of ways, but she is the first to do so with metals.

*** An invasion force of Nazis was repelled by what was clearly the events of Film/BedknobsAndBroomsticks
*** An historian refers to ancient Gaul as being completely occupied by Romans [[ComicBook/{{Asterix}} except for one small village in Brittany]].

* SmallNameBigEgo: Noel Bitner spent a great deal of time tracing the location of a dragon egg, to the point that he started insisting that he be referred to as 'Adept Bitner' (a title that didn't actually exist) and was certain that he could use his animal communication abilities to bond with the wild dragon once it hatched, only for the dragon to bite his head off and prove that he was completely wrong about everything.

* SuperpowerfulGenetics: averted. Powered parents very rarely transmit any kind of ability to their descendants. [[spoiler:except Lynette, who descends from a ancient lineage of Germans that can manipulate electricity, although even then it is very rare]].

* BlowYouAway: Pamela from the 1940's Chequy exhibits powerful air manipulation powers.

* CompellingVoice: Lady Carmichael from 1940's Chequy can verbally order a person to just die on the spot. Funnily enough, she oozes so much natural authority that her ability is rarely used and is almost a legend.

* GravityMaster: Usha from the 1940's Chequy has full mastery of gravity that she uses mainly to levitate or fly or [[spoiler: crush to death her enemies]].

* HeartIsAnAwesomePower: Bridget from 1940's Chequy is seemingly on the low end of the power scale compared to her powerful GravityMaster and [[BlowYouAway air manipulating]] friends. In contrast, her ability is only to produce a mother-of-pearl substance from her hands, an unimpressive skill even if said substance is almost unbreakable. However, as a Chequy operative, she was trained to make the most of her ability and is able to use it to create basic weapons, armory pieces and tools as well as restrains. In addition to her combat training, this makes her a rather formidable opponent able to take on much more powerful foes.

* CloningBlues: Brought up but subverted; the Grafters can create clones, but it requires long-term investment to create an adult clone that is capable of doing anything more than sitting around and blinking, and generally the Grafters do not use clones as anything more than back-ups that they can transfer their minds into when their current bodies are damaged rather than creating multiple versions of one person (the lead Grafter explicitly muses that anyone who would want multiple copies of themselves around is not likely to be worth keeping around even as one person).

*** An historian refers to antic Gaul as being completely occupied by Romans [[ComicBook/{{Asterix}} except for one small village in Brittany.]]

* NoodleIncident: A ton. One that comes to mind is Sir Wattleman assasinating a bunch of Nazis while he was naked.

* RankUp: As of ''Blitz'', Felicity Clements has achieved her dream of joining the Baraghasts.

* PerspectiveFlip: The second book offers one by having a Grafter protagonist, recounting the history of Grafters and their first encounter with the Checquys. It turns out that they were horrified by this band of superpowered-beings that defy the laws of nature and science. For the third book, we have the perspective of a totally normal librarian suddenly receiving superpowers and thrust into the world of the Checquy. This is also a contrast for how a minor antagonist of the second book had also manifested powers, but without any help failed to adjust to them.

** In ''Blitz'', [[spoilers:Pamela dies to the Nazis she brought down unto England.]]

* AffablyEvil: Despite a century of loyal service, members of the Checquy seem to fear that Alrich's affableness is masking a more patient evil. People tend to treat him with the same kind of caution and respect one would an unpinned grenade.

** Also ''[[InvertedTrope Inverted]]'', because Myfanwy II [[spoiler: is actually ''more powerful'' that Myfanwy I, because she lacks the [[AchievementsInIgnorance fear of her powers]] and the [[RestrainingBolt lifetime of restraint]] that the Estate built into Myfanwy I]]

* ColdBloodedTorture: The Checquy gets ''creative'' with anyone who runs away or commits treason. Nastily so (apparently at one point the procedure for dealing with traitors involved narwhal ivory and trained lynxes before culminating in the traitor being ritually trampled to death by the population of the village of Avebury, although Myfanwy muses that would be harder to arrange these days).

* SuperpowerfulGenetics: averted. Powered parents very rarely transmit any kind of ability to their descendants. [[spoiler: except Lynette, who descends from a ancient lineage of Germans that can manipulate electricity, although even then it is very rare]].

* HumanoidAbomination: The Grafters often appear as this on the few occasions they bother to look human.

* IAmAHumanitarian: Van Syke. However, it is not clear if being a Grafter turned him into one, or if he picked up that habit beforehand.

* LongLostRelative: Bronwyn, who finds Myfanwy through tax records. Some skills run in the family, apparently.

* TheMole: [[spoiler: Tons and tons of people, most notably Goblet, Gestalt, and Grantchester.]]

* OurVampiresAreDifferent: Like "hatch out of eggs" different and their hair color changes depending on feeding status. But otherwise, we never find out much about them.
* PerspectiveFlip: The second book offers one by having a Grafter protagonist, recounting the history of Grafters and their first encounter with the Checquys. It turns out that they were horrified by this band of superpowered-beings that defy the laws of nature and science.

* PubertySuperpower: Averted. Some folks are born with powers, but people can come into them at any age, even in middle adulthood.

* RedShirts / RedShirtArmy: Your average Checquy soldier is said to be better than any of the world's conventional special forces. Yet, they die quickly and often.

* ShockAndAwe: Lynette, one of the main character from Blitz discovers that she can charge metal objects with red-colored electricity.

* TheBeautifulElite: The second book describe more the Grafter along these lines (compared above to the HumanoidAbomination). Most of them belongs to the continental Europe elite. They are highly clever, eternally young, with perfect enhanced bodies. They also use a lot their abilities for fun, science or art in addition to the more familiar fighting aspects. It offers a deep contrast to the highly bureaucratic, hierarchical and military Checquy.

* ChessMotifs: Pawns are powered indivduals that don't hold Court office. The Court offices are Rooks, Chevaliers (Knights), and Bishops. King and Queen had to be changed to "Lord and Lady" so as not to offend the actual royalty. Myfanwy I has a rant about how foolish this is — the Bishops aren't actually ecclesiastical, sometimes the Lord or Lady ends up being the wrong gender because that's just who the Checquy need filling the role, and in general having two people in each job is a recipe for coordination problems.[[spoiler: This actually ends up working in Myfanwy's favour later; the Grafters were attempting to pass a message on to Gestalt by setting up a situation and issuing a request for 'the Rook', assuming that Gestalt would respond, only for Myfanwy to go instead and receive a vital clue to the conspiracy]].

* NighInvulnerability: Sir Wattleman, who can survive being shot in the head, and Monica Jarvis-Reed, who can survive a plunge from the upper atmosphere.

* OrganizationWithUnlimitedFunding: The Checquy and its American counterpart, the Croatoan.

* ShoutOut: A few of these can be found in ''Stiletto'';
** In the early nineteenth century, five Grafter Chimeras were released into the Arctic to hunt down a man who had used Grafter resources and galvanic energy to create a new being (''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'').
** Scientific experiments led to an island being populated by mutated animals (''Literature/TheIslandOfDoctorMoreau'').
** During the early twentieth century, some grafters spent time in a club whose members included a stranger none of them could identify who kept muttering about a beekeeper and the dynamics of a rock (clearly intended to be Professor Moriarty, the arch-enemy of Literature/SherlockHolmes).

* ShoutOut: in Blitz, an historian refers to antic Gaul as being completely occupied by Romans [[ComicBook/{{Asterix}} except for one small village in Brittany.]]
* SuperheroSchool: Essentially the Estate
* SuperpowerfulGenetics: averted. Powered parents very rarely transmit any kind of ability to their descendants. [[spoiler: except Lynette, who descends from a ancient lineage of Germans that can manipulate electricity]].
* TalkingInYourDreams: Lady Farrier's power. Her powers allow her to enter dreams of others and having completely secret meetings there. This is also why she is the only Checquy to find out early on about Myfanwy's amnesia.

* TokenEvilTeammate: [[spoiler:Discounting the explicit traitors]], Alrich is basically this to the rest of the Court, with other characters half-seriously observing that they may ask him to eat people they find annoying and an unspoken agreement that he will never rise beyond his current rank of Bishop despite having been in the Court for over a century.
* TookALevelInBadass: From the perspective of the Checquy, Myfanwy does this after her amnesia, as her lost memory leaves her with an instinctive knowledge of her powers without her previous self's psychological hang-ups.

* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler: Myfanwy's epinephrine pen.]] In the beginning, we learn that [[spoiler: Myfanwy is allergic to bees and carries an epipen everywhere. At the end, she uses it to kill Norman before he can wipe her mind again]].