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Summary
Summary
In Lee Kelly's newest fantasy novel, two young sorcerers experiment with magic and mobsters in 1920s Prohibition when a new elixir is created that turns their lives upside down.
Washington, DC, 1926. Sorcery opponents have succeeded in passing the 18th Amendment, but the Prohibition of magic has only invigorated the city's underworld. Smuggling rings carry magic contraband in from the coast. Sorcerers cast illusions to aid mobsters' crime sprees. Gangs have even established "magic havens," secret venues where the public can lose themselves in immersive magic and consume a mind-bending, highly addictive elixir known as "the sorcerer's shine."
Joan Kendrick, a young sorcerer from the backwoods of Norfolk County, accepts an offer to work for DC's most notorious crime syndicate, The Shaw Gang, when her family's home is repossessed. Alex Danfrey, first-year Federal Prohibition Unit trainee with a complicated past and talents of his own, becomes tapped to go undercover and infiltrate the Shaws. When Joan meets Alex at the Shaws' magic haven, she discovers a confidante in her fellow partner and he begins to fall under her spell. But when a new breed of the addictive sorcerer's shine is created within the walls of the magic haven, Joan and Alex are forced to question their allegiances as they become pitted against one another in a dangerous, heady game of cat-and-mouse.
Author Notes
Lee Kelly is the author of A Criminal Magic and City of Savages . She has wanted to write since she was old enough to hold a pencil, but it wasn't until she began studying for the California Bar Exam that she conveniently started putting pen to paper. An entertainment lawyer by trade, lee has practiced in Los Angeles and New York. She lives with her husband and son in Millburn, New Jersey. Follow her on at @LeeYKelly and on her website at NewWriteCity.com.
Reviews (3)
School Library Journal Review
In this alternate 1926, the Feds aren't fighting the demon alcohol; instead, the great danger made illegal via the Eighteenth Amendment is magic. The illusions gifted sorcerers can conjure are but a window into this forbidden magic. Patrons of illegal magic joints consume "Shine," water transmuted into a potion by magical power, for an altered state-a trip that many want to take again and again. Inside the Red Den, one establishment where patrons use Shine, Joan Kendrick, a country girl using her astonishing magical gifts to save her family, and Alex Danfrey, undercover agent and son of an indicted trafficker in magic, fall under a different sort of spell. If Joan can help the Washington, DC, gangster running the Den find a way to keep Shine from turning back into water after 24 hours, the consumption of magic and the criminal power structure will be forever altered. Few of the trappings of the 1920s get much play, but the allure and grimy glamour of the speakeasy provide the perfect vehicle for a magically made drug and criminal commodity. VERDICT As both Joan and Alex are only a bit older than high school students, their powers and dilemmas will interest the sort of strong teen readers who might enjoy a fantastical version of the era.-Suzanne Gordon, Lanier High School, Gwinnett County, GA © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
In Kelly's nuanced tale of an alternate 1920s America, Prohibition outlaws magic, and "shine" is a potent and addictive spell-made drink that only lasts for one day after its creation. Joan Kendrick is so desperate to save her family that she hitches her magic to a rising star of the black market, gangster Harrison Gunn. Alex Danfrey is looking for redemption and revenge, so he becomes a federal spy in the Shaw Gang, which includes Gunn and Joan. When Joan creates a spell that can preserve shine eternally, a discovery that will rock the world, Alex has to decide whether to bring down the Shaws or rescue Joan and her family. Kelly excels at contrasts in her characters: the innocent who is increasingly willing to submit to darkness to protect her loved ones, the not-so-innocent climbing back from darkness through good acts, and their inevitable clash despite the bond between them. The dark underbelly of Washington, D.C., in Kelly's arcane Jazz Age is the perfect shadowy setting for two young characters who think they are nobodies, but upon whom history will turn. This urban fantasy, always electric, reads like jazz itself. Agent: Adriann Ranta, Wolf Literary Services. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
America in the 1920s. Prohibition is being rigorously enforced. Bootleggers and illegal street dealers are raking in huge profits. A man and a woman he's an undercover government agent, she works for a crime ring meet and, despite their seemingly insurmountable differences, feel an unshakable attraction. This is a solid, suspenseful, Prohibition-era crime story, with one rather large twist: in this version of the U.S., it's not liquor that's been made illegal, it's magic. Sorcery is now strictly regulated; dealers in illegal shine (a magical elixir) are rounded up and prosecuted; bootleggers traffic in illegal magic spells; sorcerers are highly sought after, both by the criminal element and by the government enforcement agency. The story is anchored in a recognizably real world, complete with Lucky Strike cigarettes and Sears catalogs, and its characters, for the most part, could have stepped out of a traditional 1920s thriller. Lee has clearly done her homework. This is a clever and very imaginative variant on a tried-and-true theme.--Pitt, David Copyright 2016 Booklist
