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Ink & Sigil
by Kevin Hearne
Indie Author: No
Kindle Unlimited: No
Publication Date: 8.25.2020

Genres: 
Fantasy
Urban Fantasy
Thriller / Mystery

Page Count: 336 Pages

Synopsis:

Al MacBharrais is both blessed and cursed. He is blessed with an extraordinary white moustache, an appreciation for craft cocktails – and a most unique magical talent. He can cast spells with magically enchanted ink and he uses his gifts to protect our world from rogue minions of various pantheons, especially the Fae.

But he is also cursed. Anyone who hears his voice will begin to feel an inexplicable hatred for Al, so he can only communicate through the written word or speech apps. And his apprentices keep dying in peculiar freak accidents. As his personal life crumbles around him, he devotes his life to his work, all the while trying to crack the secret of his curse.

But when his latest apprentice, Gordie, turns up dead in his Glasgow flat, Al discovers evidence that Gordie was living a secret life of crime. Now Al is forced to play detective – while avoiding actual detectives who are wondering why death seems to always follow Al. Investigating his apprentice’s death will take him through Scotland’s magical underworld, and he’ll need the help of a mischievous hobgoblin if he’s to survive. 

Sabetha’s Review:

 5/5

The cover for this book is so amazing!!! I’ve caught myself drooling over it multiple times. It’s 100% the reason I picked this book up to read. Didn’t read the blurb or who the author was, just had to read whatever was behind that cover.

Thank goodness what was there was awesome! Loved this book so much! From the sigil magic to the lizard wizard van to all the hierarchy. ugh. I’m ready to reread it.

I’m a sucker for inks & pens, and the research the author put into the main characters craft is high five worthy. The book is life like and mystical. You can feel the time put into to making sure the setting is culturally accurate, and all lore lines up. Some books fail at sinking in real world dialect into a fiction novel but this book works so freaking well. I feared i was going to be referencing the authors notes and half confused at the crazy spellings, but it never happened. The flow of the sentences supported the dialect perfectly.

All of the characters are well crafted, and the personalities of each are distinct and compliment the story perfectly. The grey of the ‘villains’, to the grey of the ‘good guys’ so much yes for this one. I’m also here for the commentary on ‘human’ trafficking, and how the magical world is dealing with the same problems we are dealing with in humanity.

Book one hasn’t even released yet, but I’m ready for book two. Also a poster for my wall of this cover *drooling*

I received this book via NetGalley.

Read more reviews from Sabetha!