Alex Verus runs a magic shop in London. He’s also a mage. He’s not Harry Dresden.
I liked the set up of the world in this book. Magic here is hidden, but there are people that are mildly magic that get drawn into the orbit of the magic users. We meet one of them in Alex’s friend Luna – she has a curse, but isn’t able to do magic of her own.
Alex himself has a history that we just barely get hints of in this story. There are dark magicians, and he was in the orbit of one when he was training. He’s escaped, and is now trying to live a low profile away from any of the other mages.
Alex is a diviner, and the story starts when several other mages seek him out to investigate an artifact that has already been brought to the British Museum. There are factions at play, and lots of the politics of this new world to absorb – I’m definitely intrigued to learn more.
I also really enjoyed seeing what the author did with Alex’s powers as a diviner – it was an interesting take on that role. Much more active than usual.