Magic for Liars

An incredibly fun, clever, hard-to-put-down murder mystery set in a high school for magical teens. PI Ivy Gamble is on the case: Ivy isn't magic, but her twin sister Tabitha is, and Tabitha teaches at Osthorne Academy for Young Mages, where Ivy is supposed to investigate the suspicious death of another teacher, Sylvia Capley. Sylvia, it was determined, was killed by Theoretical Magic gone awry, but the headmaster Ms. Torres believes she was murdered.

(Spoiler alert: yes.)

Ivy and her sister are basically estranged, since the death of their mother from cancer while they were in high school (Tabitha at a magic school, of course, and Ivy at home). Hurt and resentment simmers between them, and although they do hash it out somewhat, everything show more isn't all sunshine and roses. There's also a Prophecy about the Chosen One (of course there is), mean girls, abortion, and a very attractive Physical Magic teacher, Rahul.

See also: The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz

Quotes

"But magic isn't real."
"Isn't it?"
"It--of course not. I would have heard of it. Everyone would have heard of it."
"Haven't you heard of it, though?" (32)

But trying not to feel something isn't the same as not feeling it. (32)

"[Theoretical Magic] is a very dangerous field even at the entry levels. It's a lot like sticking your hand into a black box that may or may not have cobras in it." (Torres to Ivy, 72)

The tracks evaporated from under my train of thought. (92)

Truth matters. Truth has always been the thing I'm after, the most important thing. But sometimes, to get to the truth, detours through fiction are necessary. (156)

Here's the truth about most detective work: it's boring, grueling, and monotonous. It involves a lot of being in the right place at the wrong time. But if you spend enough hours being in the right place, eventually, it'll be the right time. (219) show less

The best way to relate to this book is less as a fantasy or as a mystery but as a novel of character. There is less magic than there might of been, though magic is at the base of the apparent crime. And as a "whodunit" the plot narrows down very quickly to two characters. What one really has here is a personality study of Ivy Gamble, the private investigator brought in to sift the ashes, as in the course of the plot she's going to have to come to grips with a lot of things about her own life and character that she has been denying. I kind of hope that there isn't a sequel, in as much as this story is complete in and of itself.

'Magic For Liars' delighted me because it did something unexpected with the 'Murder In A School For Magic' concept.

The other books that I've read with broadly similar themes establish a contract between writer and reader that says something like: 'We both know I'm giving you Urban Fantasy here but I'll make it interesting and surprising and internally consistent so relax and have some fun.'

Sarah Gailey starts from a different place. She starts with, 'What if magic was not just real but taken for granted? The province of a gifted elite to be sure but still just another thread in American society. Now imagine that you're one a pair of twin sisters and you have no magic and your sister has so much of it that everything is effortless for show more her and no matter how hard you work, you can never have what she has. What would it be like to grow up like that, with a mirror-image sister who reflects not the you that you've become but the you who you could have been if only you'd been the one born with magic? Finally, imagine that, in your mundane life, you've become a competent Private Investigator, albeit on a diet of cheating spouses and insurance fraudsters, and then you are invited by the head of the prestigious magic school at which your estranged sister teaches, to investigate a suspicious death on campus. Who would you be when your world and your sister's world had to co-exist?

The answer in Ivy Gamble's case is that she would be who she has always been, someone who habitually lies to herself and others.

'Magic For Liars' is a vine that flourishes on the trellis of a good mystery. A teacher's body has been found, bisected, in the restricted section of the school library, amongst the books that whisper to one another and may perhaps call your name. There's a thought-through system of magic and magical education that goes beyond wand-waving and Dog Latin. There are secrets and a suspect pool that extends across staff and students and the resolution is both surprising and satisfying. Yet, the mystery supports rather than powers the book.

'Magic For Liars' is a deeply personal first-person account that focuses not so much on the woman who died or even on finding the person who killed her, but on Ivy Gambles' internal conflicts: the lies she chooses to tell herself and others, the life she wants but can't have, the toxic mixture of love, hate, jealousy and resentment that characterises her relationship with her sister and the pain and instability that comes from her unanchored sense of identity.

I was fascinated by what I read. The book kept getting stronger, resisted clichés and tropes, stuck with being character-based, took me through a mystery that worked and that I couldn't guess the answer to and left me somewhere unexpected that felt real, like more than the solution to a mystery, like a milestone in a life.

I'll be back for more of Sarah Gailey's fiction. I have 'Just Like Home' and 'Upright Women Wanted' on my 'Read in 2023' list.

I recommend the audiobook version of 'Magic For Liars'. Xe Sands' narration is impeccable. She brings Ivy Gamble to life. Click on the SoundCloud link below to hear a sample.

https://soundcloud.com/macaudio-2/magic-for-liars-by-sarah-gailey-audiobook-exce... show less

Ivy Gamble tells this story. She is a PI who mostly tracks down cheating spouses or those who are defrauding insurance companies. When the Headmaster of the Osthorne Academy for Young Mages comes to hire her to look into the gruesome death of one of the teachers, Ivy is intrigued but definitely feeling out of her depth. Worst of all, her estranged sister Tabitha is a teacher at the school.

Their estrangement started when it was discovered that Tabitha had magic and Ivy had none, and grew even wider when their mother died of a fast-acting cancer while Ivy was home caring for her and Tabitha was happily away at her school. Ivy's mother's death happened when she was a junior in High School and almost caused her to flunk out. It started her show more on a path to her career as a PI instead of attending college and joining the FBI.

Ivy hopes that she will be able to reconcile and build some sort of relationship with her sister since she feels very alone and isolated. Ivy is a loner because, in her opinion, everyone leaves sooner rather than later. She aches for connection but doesn't know how to form connections.

As she looks into the death of the teacher, she learns more about the world of magic and meets a number of the students and staff of the school who might, or might not, know something that will help her discover the murderer. She learns that kids are just kids despite the fact that they have magic. There are mean girls and all the traumas of adolescence. She even begins to form a relationship with one of the teachers in the school. However, since she's lying to him about having magical ability herself, the relationship struggles.

This was an intriguing story with an interesting main character complete with major flaws and insecurities. It is also told in the first person by that main character which leads to wondering about the veracity of her point of view. I found it an absorbing story. show less

Ivy is a lonely private detective that seems to have lost everything when her mother became sick with cancer and died. She has no friends and hollow relationships with her estranged twin sister and her father. When she is approached by the headmaster of Osthorne Academy for Young Mages, a Hogwarts type school, to investigate an accidental death of a staff member and prove that it was murder, Ivy believes that she may be able to re-establish a relationship with her sister, Tabitha, who teaches at the academy. Ivy has never had her sister's magical abilities, which has left her feeling insignificant for most of her life. When Ivy begins to delve into the secrets of the teachers and students, she finds much more than she bargained show more for.

Magic for Liars is labeled as a mystery but is really more of a tragedy. The mystery of the staff member's death does create the outline for the story but the meat is really the painful relationship between the two sisters. Ivy is a pathetic soul who has created an unhappy life for herself, pinning all of the blame for her life on her sister and all of her hopes for the future on a possible relationship with her. The end of the story answers the questions raised in the mystery, but leaves doubt about Ivy's fate. Overall, a well-written but depressing story full of emotion and sorrow. show less

*I received a free copy of this book from the publisher through Goodreads Giveaways in exchange for an honest review.*

I went back and forth as to whether or not I liked this book a few times while reading it, but I ended it by wholeheartedly loving it. I love the noir flavor mixed with this grim, otherworldly fantasy that she has going on in this world; I love the exploration with relationships, especially that of Ivy and her twin sister Tabitha–one non-magical person and one exploding with power; and I love the school setting and how students are shown as just being students, even if they have magical powers.

Gailey crafted this story incredibly well; I kept wanting to flip through pages and know what was going on, and just when I was show more *sure* I figured out what was going on, it was completely flipped around and I realized I knew nothing. I enjoyed being in the moment like this, because it really helped me to connect with Ivy, who went through the same emotions and setbacks. I also thought the romance was well done; Ivy plays around with who she could have been if she’d been like her sister, and it’s at once so sad, heartwarming, and relatable to read about someone still holding onto an impossible dream.

Definitely read this if you’re into the sort of snark-sleuth fantasy mysteries; this one is a treat! show less

Take Izzy Spellman from [b:The Spellman Files|129117|The Spellman Files (The Spellmans, #1)|Lisa Lutz|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347521714l/129117._SX50_.jpg|2896642] or Roxane Weary from [b:The Last Place You Look|31450910|The Last Place You Look (Roxane Weary, #1)|Kristen Lepionka|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1478185197l/31450910._SY75_.jpg|52153749], give her a twin sister who is good at everything, including magic, and hand her a case at the magical high school where her sister teaches. If you're picturing Hogwarts, adjust that to something closer to the school in [b:The Secret Place|52263433|The Secret Place (Dublin Murder Squad, #5)|Tana show more French|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1566422252l/52263433._SX50_SY75_.jpg|21598636], but in California.

Ivy (our hot mess female private eye) is approached by the headmaster of Osthorne Academy for Young Mages. The health teacher, Sylvia Capley, was found dead in the library during the school's welcome-back dinner. The NMIS (National Mage Investigative Service) ruled her death a suicide or a self-inflicted spell gone wrong. Ms. Torres, the headmaster, disagrees. Since Ivy already knows about the existence of Osthorne, she seems like an ideal investigator. Except that seeing her estranged sister exacerbates Ivy's little drinking problem and sends her down the rabbit-hole of what her life could have been like if she had magic, too.

Through interviewing staff and students, Ivy begins to discover all the little secrets and relationships that are standard for a boarding school, and to learn who could have been powerful enough to kill Ms. Capley and motivated to do so. If staff and students assume that Ivy also has magic training, what's the harm in that? Except that Ivy finds herself drawn to one of the teachers, who may be upset when he realizes she's been deceiving him. And Ivy may not be able to defend herself if she gets too close to the truth.

Although it borrows tropes from several different genres, this mash-up is entirely unique and the characters are much more than caricatures. The mystery, the magic, the self-examination...it all worked for me. show less