Wednesday, October 16, 2013

City of Dark Magic

One of the worse things about working at the library and checking in books is that the pile of books beside my bed and my list of books to read keeps growing and growing.  A book which recently came through and caught by eye was City of Dark Magic by Magnus Flyte.  


Sarah is a musicologist working on her Ph.D and is offered a summer job in Prague, coordinating the music section of a soon-to-be opened private museum.  Since this is where her idol, Beethoven, spent some time, this was a no-brainer to accept this job.  That's when things get strange.

First, there is a dwarf who keeps appearing and making odd statements and giving her even odder articles.  There is the current prince, Max, who has inherited the estates in and around Prague and who is setting up the museum.   A young, blind musical prodigy which Sarah mentors.  Two or three murders occur.  Throw in the beautiful, but deadly, other half of Max's family and an American senator with high aspirations, some wild sex and a strange, magical drug and here is a book you can't put down.

One thing I liked about the book was the setting, Prague.  It is not unusual to get books set in Paris, London, Moscow, New York, or some obscure little town somewhere, but you don't often get cities that have been set in cities which have been behind the Iron Curtain for so long.

The best thing is that Sarah is not a dummy nor is she some shrinking violet in need of rescue.  One of the reasons she took the job was that her mentor, Professor Sherbatsky, apparently committed suicide at the palace where the museum is being set up.  She will be taking over where he left off and she wants to get to the bottom of this 'suicide', because she isn't believing it.

A fast-paced book, filled with international intrigue, sex, magic, and music, it is a book well worth reading.  What is also fun is the author, Magnus Flyte, who obviously isn't a 'real' person.  And there is this nice video which gives a little bit more information on the premise of the book. 



On an even better note (no musical pun intended), there is a sequel coming out next month, following the same characters.  I can't wait.

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