This novel is set in San Francisco, one of my favorite cities, so this was a real pleasure to read. Levitt has written three other novels utilizing the main characters. Mason is a jazz musician and has a small Pinscher-type dog named Lou who is his constant companion. Since this is a fantasy novel there's more to these two than walking in the park and music: Mason is a "practitioner," Levitt's term for a magic user, and Lou is an Ifrit, a class of jinn in the Arabic world, and here in this universe most practitioners have ifrits instead of Familiars.
Mason, an "enforcer" among practitioners, is one who keeps the peace amongst magical and unmagical-- is hired by a dark practitioner named Jessica to find a young woman named Jackie who has stolen something. Mason is not a dark practitioner and is leery of hiring out. But Jessica claims she will not harm the thief but just wants her object returned and since the money is really good, Mason reluctantly agrees to do the job. Of course, this search sucks him into magical problems big time. And the object turns out not only to be magical but powerful enough to neutralize practitioners all over the world.
And the chase is on. Who will win out? Will Jackie unleash a terrible world-shaking magic or will Mason and his fellow practitioners be able to stop her, with Jessica's help?
Like I said, the setting is wonderful; Levitt knows the city neighborhoods well.
I enjoyed the idea (and I loved the cover, the model on the front is gorgeous) but the story is told all at the same emotional level even if something intense is happening. Perhaps to drag out a cliche‚ the storytelling is a little too laid back and rather monotone. But the plot was good and the characters interesting. ~~ Sue Martin
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