Street Magic – Caitlin Kittredge

Pete was 16 when she met Jack, her older sister’s boyfriend. He could do magic, and even asked her along for help when he needed to do a particularly difficult spell. But the spell got the better of him, and he died. Or so Pete thought.

Years later, Pete’s a member of the London police force, and is pursuing leads on a kidnapped girl when Jack turns up, strung out on heroin, but very much alive. With his help, and having to face that fact that magic she’d managed to convince herself wasn’t real is in fact very real, Pete and Jack track down the kidnapped girl. At the same time, Pete finds out what what happened to Jack, and why he had sought her help in the first place.

I’ll admit that this book started out a bit slow, but once it got going, I was hooked (and I write this in the throes of one of the worst head colds I’ve had in quite some time, so getting me hooked when my head is this stuffed is saying something). The magic in the book is based in Celtic mythology, with a nicely modern twist. I’ll definitely read more in this series.