Hardcover, 336 pages
Published June 4, 2019 by Tor Books.
Ivy Gamble has never wanted to be magic. She is perfectly happy with her life life—she has an almost-sustainable career as a private investigator, and an empty apartment, and a slight drinking problem. It's a great life and she doesn't wish she was like her estranged sister, the magically gifted professor Tabitha.
But when Ivy is hired to investigate the gruesome murder of a faculty member at Tabitha’s private academy, the stalwart detective starts to lose herself in the case, the life she could have had, and the answer to the mystery that seems just out of her reach.
The story of murder mystery is engrossing and interesting. It is not easy to guess, also it is refreshing and have a sad sort of ending.
I liked the complicated sibling relationship and found the story compelling but it just doesn't feel like a story that will stick with me much beyond the final page.
Promising noir murder mystery in a magic high school, I was kept guessing well but also meandered away from caring by the inconsistent stakes and gaps in attention.
Magic for Liars is a reaction to the Harry Potter, school for gifted children trope.
There is an aristocratic elite born with a talent for Magic and there are the Muggles. There is a chosen one prophecy.
The story concentrates on the struggle of two sets of siblings. The point of view character, a Muggle twin of a tenured professor at magic school. and two students growing up in the shadow of the chosen one prophecy.
The audiobook narration by xe Sands is especially appropriate as she is great at doing melancholy. She is a good choice for Sarah Gailey's books.
The premise sounds great: non-magical private investigator hired to investigate a murder in a Hogwarts-ish school of magic. Ivy Gamble, PI, sister to the very talented magic teacher Tabitha Gamble, is brought in when the "official" investigation of the murder declares it to be a self-inflicted accident. The rest of the book follows Ivy's efforts to solve a magical murder in a magic high school without knowing the first thing about magic herself.
This sounds like it could be an intriguing book and indeed it could have been. It almost was, it's still fairly readable, but Ivy makes so many ridiculous and inexplicable decisions, and suddenly knows about magic at exactly the critical times despite supposedly knowing nothing about it the rest of the time, that I was half expecting her to be revealed to have been a suppressed magic prodigy all these years. But no, it just doesn't make …
The premise sounds great: non-magical private investigator hired to investigate a murder in a Hogwarts-ish school of magic. Ivy Gamble, PI, sister to the very talented magic teacher Tabitha Gamble, is brought in when the "official" investigation of the murder declares it to be a self-inflicted accident. The rest of the book follows Ivy's efforts to solve a magical murder in a magic high school without knowing the first thing about magic herself.
This sounds like it could be an intriguing book and indeed it could have been. It almost was, it's still fairly readable, but Ivy makes so many ridiculous and inexplicable decisions, and suddenly knows about magic at exactly the critical times despite supposedly knowing nothing about it the rest of the time, that I was half expecting her to be revealed to have been a suppressed magic prodigy all these years. But no, it just doesn't make sense.
There are some fun observations - like, that high school students are self-absorbed, shallow high school students whether they are magical or not - and some interesting characters (though also quite a lot of unlikable ones). Ultimately though the ending fell flat and felt like the wrong decision for Ivy, and there were far too many contrivances carrying bits of the plot along. There were some great opportunities here for more world-building or even more commentary on social imbalances and the magical vs mundane worlds, but none of them were taken. So, overall, while it was an entertaining read for a couple of hours, I'll probably have forgotten everything about it by next week.
It a solid detective story, and while the world was interesting, the fact that we the audience don't get any real insight into the world of magic was a bit disappointing.
I loved this book. Its wit made me smile and it broke my heart in all the best ways.
