Review: STREET MAGIC

Street Magic by Caitlin Kittredge
Book 1 of the Black London series
Read by Terry Donnelly
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: paperback & audiobook

About Street Magic:

Her name is Pete Caldecott. She was just sixteen when she met Jack Winter, a gorgeous, larger-than-life mage who thrilled her with his witchcraft. Then a spirit Jack summoned killed him before Pete’s eyes — or so she thought. Now a detective , Pete is investigating the case of a young girl kidnapped from the streets of London. A tipster’s chilling prediction has led police directly to the child…but when Pete meets the informant, she’s shocked to learn he is none other than Jack. Strung out on heroin, Jack a shadow of his former self. But he’s able to tell Pete exactly where Bridget’s kidnappers are hiding: in the supernatural shadow-world of the fey. Even though she’s spent years disavowing the supernatural, Pete follows Jack into the invisible fey underworld, where she hopes to discover the truth about what happened to Bridget — and what happened to Jack on that dark day so long ago…

Source: Info in the About Street Magic was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5989616-street-magic?ac=1 on 19/04/2013.

Review:

The first volley is a background history of Pete and Jack twelve years ago. It was a story of a sixteen year old girl and a 26-year-old man fooling around with magic which was not very interesting to me at all. I struggled to get through that short chapter in the hopes that something good is around the bend. Because I wanted to believe that there is something good around the corner. Because I like the premise of this story. I am a sucker for police and/or investigative supernaturals, i.e., Portland Homicide Detective Nick Burkhardt of the Grimm TV show, Harry Dresden of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, Peter Grant of the Peter Grant series by Ben Aaronovitch, etc. So I really wanted to like this book. And that is a very powerful foundation to start a series/book with, which gave this book an edge over the other books in my whishlist and TBR pile clammoring for my attention. Thus this book got read. But a very slow start.

It didn't have the humour between the pages which I liked in the Peter Grant series but it did have the investigative plot which I find to be a good thing. It also has the mesmerizing world building that the Dresden Files have which made the world of DI Pete Caldecott addictive. Plus the book having Jim Butcher's endorsement in the cover also contributed to my picking this book up.

The story is based on the British culture which is obviously written by somebody not British trying to infuse the story with British colloquials and slangs a bit too much to the point of being atrocious. Not to mention that it also has a disorienting effect. Now the Peter Grant series, that is British, without the overdose of "Britspeak". Then there is Pete. She is suppose to be a police officer right? So Pete and Jack is walking down this dark alley in pursuit of information. She hears a scuffling sound and she ignores it and purposefully trains her eyes to the back of Jack's head (page 103). What if that was a gun-toting mugger? ...Dead cop, is more like! And that is not the only stupid thing Pete gets up to. Repeatedly stupid. She is also a Denial Queen of a cop. Unfortunately Pete is not the only stupid character in this book. So we have: Inconsistent character development. Non-realistic scenes. Suspension of disbelief down to the boots.

This book has it's pros and cons and this might be a good read to a more patient reader but this book is not for me.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 2
Character development = 1
Story itself = 2
Ending = 2.5
World building = 4
Cover art = 1.5
Pace = 1.5 (paperback) / (audiobook: 11 hrs and 39 mins listening time)
Plot = 3
Narration = 2

Overall Rating: 1.5 out of 5 cherries


Books In The Black London Series: