Magic For Liars

One more from my SDCC book haul:

In the beginning of Magic For Liars, Ivy Gamble is a small-time private investigator, following cheating spouses and insurance scammers, when she’s tapped for a murder investigation. Not just any murder either, a magical evisceration at the high school where her estranged sister teaches magic.

First, what worked: I loved the magical school. I thought the angsty boy convinced he’s the Chosen One was great. The teen girls in their intense friendships, and sad Ivy wishing she could be a teenager again. The teachers, the students, the blend of high school drama and magical vengeance, and of course, all the lies for Ivy to investigate. I read this in almost one sitting, because I thought the magic school was just that good.

Ivy’s a bit of a cliche, drinking too much gin, eating takeout and writing case notes on her wall of crazy, but somehow the hardboiled detective meshed well with the magical school. There was only one convenient eavesdropping, the rest of the time, Ivy had to use her solid investigation, reasoning and psychology skills to work things out. Ivy’s great at her job, so great that I wondered if she’d discover that her work success was actually her undiagnosed talents in Magickal Investigology.

When a good-looking magic teacher assumes that Ivy is magic, like her sister, and uh, everyone else around her, she doesn’t tell him the truth.  I thought this was weird — she doesn’t lie to anyone else, no one mentions the truth to Rahul, and when he inevitably discovers the truth, he seems terribly upset over someone he’s had two dates with omitting some information.

I read this so quickly and enjoyed this so much, but ultimately it had a really unsatisfying ending. I knew it was going to be one when I could feel just a few pages left and nothing was coming together. We’ve been teased throughout the book of whether sisterly loyalty or solving the murder will win out for Ivy, and in the end, she just… doesn’t. Ivy’s personal issues and her professional success have been in conflict the whole novel, and then she just… doesn’t.

Also, the novel opens with Ivy getting stabbed by someone waiting outside her office, and she’s terribly nonchalant about it being a random mugging, so I kept expecting it to be a magical minion attacking her, but nope. Just a random bit of drama and violence to get the story rolling, no connection to the main plot.