| $@%&! level: Low “Bedroom” level: Low (if any) Violence level: Medium Back Cover: "More than a doctor, more than a detective... He is Sir Adam Sinclair: nobleman, physician, scholar—and Adept. A man of learning and power, he practices ancient arts unknown to the twentieth century. He has had many names, lived many lives, but his mission remains the same: to protect the Light from those who would tread the Dark Roads. Now his beloved Scotland is defiled by an unholy cult of black magicians who will commit any atrocity to achieve their evil ends—even raise the dead! Only one man can stand against them...” |
In terms of pace, I'd say it reads mostly like your average mystery. It's a bit of a slow buildup, with the clues being added one at a time, leading to the eventual conclusion and confrontation. And in the mean time there's some fun exploration of the magic system with a brand new young magic user named Peregrine. He spends a lot of time staring wide-eyed at things, but he's a useful character to have around when it comes to needing a logical reason for Adam to explain everything. And he does have a pretty cool sort of magic sight, and that useful artistic ability that lets him share exactly what he sees.
Once they finally do figure out who, what, and where, then things get really exciting. It's a bit of a race to the finish, with some serious danger from everything from banshees to storms to unsafe driving conditions. And that's before you ever get to the actual final showdown, with guns and magic firing from both sides.
Altogether, I found the whole thing fascinating enough to keep me reading. Although the story sort of takes second place to character, that doesn't make the story itself particularly weak. I don't normally read mystery novels, but I suspect the character-building building and slow discovery of clues is pretty common to that genre.