Dan Willis (1) (1967–)

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
---

“How do you let yourself get talked into this?” he said out loud, mostly to keep his mind off his surroundings.

He knew very well what had brought him here, of course. Money.

Or rather, the lack of it.

WHAT'S GHOST OF A CHANCE ABOUT?
Despite the success of the events of In Plain Sight, he's barely scraping by. The financial straits that put Alex into these less-than-savory surroundings are threatening Alex's agency. It doesn't seem show more like this is a new situation for him—but it might be worse this time than usual.

He gets the chance to make some good money when one of the more powerful sorcerers in the city hires him to find a stolen invention of his that will both enrich the sorcerer and make life better for the residents of NYC. While he's looking for that, Alex is approached by a young woman whose husband has seemingly been kidnapped. Neither of these searches should be that difficult for him, but something is preventing his runes from working—so he has to approach these hunts using his mind, not his magic.

And because that's not quite enough on his plate, Alex is also hired by a woman to find out who killed her husband—there's been a series of murders that are making headlines. People are being killed by someone who leaves no trace—not only that, the victims have been found in locked rooms, with no exits.

As if that's not enough, Alex is dealing with the damage he did to his own health (and, seemingly, his lifespan) from when he rescued the city months earlier. Basically, Alex has a ghost of a chance to make it out of these next few days intact and successful.

SO, WHAT DID THINK ABOUT GHOST OF A CHANCE?
"If the details in the story are correct, the victims were all found alone in locked rooms,” Alex said. “The police had to break in each time.”

“What does that tell you?”

“Locked rooms mean suicide,” Alex said with a shrug.

“You don’t sound sure.”

“According to the story, the victims were all stabbed twice in the chest."

The year's a little more than half over, and I've read a decent number of locked room mysteries so far—I can't help but wonder if I have more headed my way before 2022 is out. This one held its own with the others I've read this year, sure, this one involved the use of magic, so it's a little easier. I did like that magic was utilized in a way that neither Iggy, Alex, or anyone who reads a newspaper in New York had apparently thought of before—so it was a little easier to pull off both the killings and the escape. So it's a little different than what, say, M.W. Craven gave us.

I couldn't help but notice how structurally similar this was to In Plain Sight—three cases that don't seem to have anything to do with each other, one of which involves the police threatening Alex if he doesn't succeed. The two novels don't follow the same outline, but the similarities stand out. But those are thoughts that came to me after I finished—while I was reading, all I thought was that I was having a really good time. It's when I start having those thoughts while I'm reading that I think we're headed for trouble.

I really appreciate what Willis has done here—the world feels pretty established and lived in already. The primary characters are pretty well-fleshed out at this point (which isn't to say we can't learn more about them) and I'm ready to see more of the magic systems at work. There is a seemingly effortless charm to these books. I was entertained throughout and kept wondering why it'd taken me so long to return to this series—I don't intend to repeat that. show less

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
---
WHAT'S IN PLAIN SIGHT ABOUT?
Alex Lockerby is a P.I. in the late 1930's New York. He occasionally consults with the police, but most of them don't respect him. Generally, he's taking small-time jobs (lost pets, etc.) to make ends meet—and it's largely because his gorgeous secretary finds those jobs for him.

Oh, Alex is a Runewright—by drawing elaborate designs in a (generally) special ink and then setting the drawing on fire he show more activates various things—finding charms, disguises, a way to look at the past of a room/item, healing, etc.

His ability doesn't necessarily mean riches aplenty or fame—it means that he has an edge in certain circumstances, but that's it.

In this novel, Alex is dealing with three cases—a distraught young woman hires him to look for a missing brother. A case he consulted on for the police didn't go the way he said it would, and he has only three days to fix the problem or he'll be charged with something and his friend on the force will be unemployed. And, a local church's soup kitchen—volunteers, priests, nuns, and those being fed--are killed by an impossibly fast-moving disease, and Alex (with the guidance of his medical doctor mentor) needs to track down the source of the disease.

The clock is ticking to deal with all three of these—also in the mix are the NYPD, the FBI, a powerful sorcerer, and an ages-old secret that threatens to destabilize the magic world.

MAGIC SYSTEM
There are, we're told, three types of magic users in this world: Alchemists, Sorcerers, and Runewrights. We don't get to see a lot of Alchemy (but we hear a little about it). We see enough of Sorcery to get a pretty good idea what it's like. But the star of the show is the use of and making of Runes.

Willis's version of Runes are similar to Hearne's Sigils, but it's only similar (various wizards, witches, and other magic users from various UF series are more similar than these, though).

I liked the way that all three versions of magic are used, and interweave with each other. Also, while various magic users aren't necessarily esteemed (Alex is dismissively called "scribbler", for example), they're all out in the open, selling their services, both on small scales and large scales.

We need more UF where the magic is out in the open—all the various series with a dozen different ways that the magic (and so on) is hidden from the general populace is getting tired. Magic being an everyday thing, something commercial...I like seeing that.

1930'S P.I.
We're supposed to get a hard-boiled P.I.-feel from Alex here. Philip Marlowe with magic, kind of a thing. It's close, but it feels sanitized. Safe. Really, Alex Lockerby is more Dixon Hill than Marlowe or Sam Spade.

I'm not saying I didn't like the idea or the execution—I enjoyed it. It just felt tame.

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT IN PLAIN SIGHT
This was fun—inventive, cleverly told, and a premise/magic system that is a breath of fresh air.

I appreciated Willis' voice and style—I do wish he'd made things a bit more nuanced, a bit harder to figure out (although there is a reveal late in the book that took me by surprise), but it's the first book—a setup for the series as a whole, and that's not easy to do.

There's a lot of charm to the writing and the characters, I can easily see this series becoming a favorite, until then, this was a fun way to spend a couple of hours, and the rest of the series looks to be the same. I'm looking forward to diving into the rest, and suspect you would be as entertained as I was. show less

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Limelight
Series: Arcane Casebook #5
Author: Dan Willis
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 319
Words: 106.5K

Synopsis:

Alex Lockerby is doing well. Business is booming, his clientelle are a lot show more richer and even the police are giving him a modicum of respect (of course, that might have more to do with Alex being on a first name basis with several of the Sorcerer Six).

A Murder Mystery author dies and Alex's mentor wants him to investigate as he believes it was murder. This leads into Alex investigating an old case from over 10 years ago about a beautiful stage actress who died on stage but no one was ever convicted. Alex gets his friend Danny Pak assigned to the case, with an understanding from the Captain that if Danny can solve this case, he'll be promoted to Captain himself. As long as Alex stays in the background.

At the same time, Alex gets dragged into another police case, where Rune Wrights are apparently using runes to blow holes in walls and rob bank vaults. From all that Alex knows, this is impossible. But if something IS happening, then it isn't impossible and it's up to Alex as the cities top Rune Wright to figure out what is going on.

Then some inexplicable deaths start happening throughout the city, all of them magic related. In each case, it would appear that the victim had no magical power but died from using magic that went out of control. Alex teams up with Sorsha Kincaid and tracks it down to a substance called Limelight, which seems to give non-magic users magic and to enhance those with the ability already.

And if that is not enough, Alex still has to worry about his new secretary. What is her agenda and is she working for Moriarty, Legion or some other unknown?

If that isn't enough, by the end of the book we find out another Rune Wright has figured out how to turn electricity into magical power. He's also figured out how to transfer said power to himself. With the city's generators at his power, he can become the most powerful Sorcerer the world has ever known.

In the end Danny solves his case, Limelight ties together Alex's cases, the mad Rune Wright is stopped and the secretary is revealed to be a 3000 year old high priestess. Oh, and Alex is prophecied to be the greatest Rune Wright to ever have lived and possibly be King of All Magic.

My Thoughts:

I really enjoyed this story so while my review might be a tad more critical than the previous Arcane Casebook reviews, please do keep that in mind.

First concern is that Alex is exactly the same as he was in the first book. Now, that could very well be deliberate, as that can be a character type (look at most of the old school noir detectives and even a character like Garrett that Glen Cook writes). Depending on your taste, this will be a bigger or smaller thing. For me, it was a small thing but noticeable. I think I noticed it more because we're up to book 5?

Secondly, the ramping up of threats and potential. The threat was seriously ramped up in the previous book when Moriarty reveals that another World War is coming and that groups like Legion are already preparing for it. Here, Alex's potential as The King of Games, errrrr, I mean, Master of Magic is revealed.

I can't articulate why this kind of thing is a burr under my saddle but power creep definitely bothers me. Personally, I'd rather Alex have stayed a lower powered Rune Wright and for the author to tell more detective stories than for this world threat to happen.

I do enjoy the mysteries. It is just fun to watch the twists and turns and little sidesteps that happen. I must admit that it is exhausting to keep 3 to 5 different balls in the air and usually by the end of the book I'm ready for some of the special coffee that Alex drinks so much of.

The cover continues to be as fantastic as ever. This time I looked and it is done by someone named Mihaela Voicu. She appears to be a digital artist and I found a bit of her stuff on her facebook page. Probably going to be a shoe-in for July's Cover Love.

Still highly recommend this series if you feel in the need for a dose of Noir'ish Urban Fantasy Mystery! :-D

★★★★☆ show less

Started, made it to a second big event and lost interest to more interesting books.

What happened? There's an interesting idea here with a magical concepts of of runes on paper, couched in absolutely boring writing. The protagonist, Alex, is a private investigator who has magical skill. The premise is hardboiled noir, right down to the crummy office, the empty bank account and the hot secretary with the long legs. The feel is 1930s depression, with streetcars, American prejudice, diner slang, show more and orphanages run by the church, with the difference of sorcerers powering the city.

The noir tropes got old for me and the sexist ones--the secretary who has a crush on Alex, the pretty girl in the dinner who worries about her clothes and who also develops a crush on Alex--make it much, much more annoying. I'd say most of the characters are cardboard; the broke-but-noble hero-detective, the generous priest caring for the orphans, the ball-busting police captain, the friendly police detective, the saintly nun.

Ultimately, however, all that might have been tolerable. After all, the idea of the runes was interesting, as was the magical deaths Alex is charged with solving. But something about the writing just killed it for me. I found both the narrative tone and the actual word choice uninteresting. The first, I think, because Willis often uses the "I went here, I did this, this person said this, this is how I felt about this person" linear style of story-telling. The second is that Willis is very concrete in most of his descriptions. You can probably feel like you are in the scene, but it's not a scene with a lot of color. It'd actually be great journalist writing, because it removes a lot of the slant and purple prose. In fact, if you hate purple prose, this may be your thing.

"Alex exited his cab thirty-five minutes later and made his way toward the cluster of police cars parked in front of a neat, three-story brick building. He got a few curious glances when people on the street realized the rain was avoiding him, but he was used to that.
'What do you want?' the officer at the door said in his best 'go away' voice. He had a pug nose, close-set eyes and a scar on his cheek that made him look all business. Definitely the right man to put on the door. 'I'm Alex Lockerby,' Alex said, handing the officer a business card. 'Detective Pak is expecting me.'


Ultimately, all of those things together--the noir sexism, the cardboard, the writing, meant I bored out of reading it. I didn't hate it, but it didn't really interest me, either. show less