The Night Raven
The Crow Investigations series, Book 1
Sarah Painter
Siskin Press
Fiction, Fantasy/Mystery/Romance
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Like the rest of her family, Lydia Crow was born with magic... but hardly anything worth the name, save a sensitivity to spirits and auras. It's just as well her magicborn father and mundane mother raised her away from London and the four magical Families who, despite diminished powers, still hold sway over the city's shadier sides. Lydia never meant to return, until her job with a Scottish private investigation firm took a bad turn and she needed somewhere to get away to that wasn't her parents' house. Fortunately, Uncle Charlie has a vacant property, an apartment above a defunct cafe, that could use a tenant. She knows full well that there's no such thing as a free favor, not even for family (and especially not for Family), but the "rent free" part of the deal is enough to convince her to trust him just this once.
Within half an hour, she's met the resident ghost and survived an assassination attempt, and finds herself seriously rethinking her life choices.
Apparently, even though she and her father turned their backs on the Crows, the Crows never turned their backs on her... and anyone with ties to that Family in London is going to be a target. When Lydia learns that her young cousin has disappeared, the attempted murder takes on a sinister new light. She may only have a year of formal training, but she is still an investigator, and the cops clearly can't be trusted with Crow business, not when magic's likely involved. Despite her misgivings about delving deeper into Family affairs, Lydia takes on the case. But there's a lot she doesn't know about the state of the magical Families of London and the particulars of Uncle Charlie's management of the Crows, and what she doesn't know might very well be the death of her.
REVIEW: There is nothing inherently wrong with this book. It's your typical urban fantasy set in London, with a brash and conveniently single heroine dealing with magical secrets and crime while juggling a forbidden attraction, in this case a local police detective, and various colorful friends and acquaintances/rivals. In fact, it's so typical that basically nothing stands out in my memory about it at all. Lydia checks every box in the generic urban fantasy investigator heroine list, down to near-perpetual horniness and regularly getting drunk with her best friend (a suburban mother who really doesn't do anything for the plot except show Lydia the kind of normal life she could've had if she hadn't been born a Crow, the kind of life heroines apparently must want for themselves simply because they will never have it) and gifts that are actually quite powerful despite her repeated denials, though never powerful enough for her not to need rescuing by males. The case seems to mostly be an excuse for this "pilot episode" book to introduce the series concept and presumed regulars; she sort of wanders in circles a lot, doing some rather boneheaded things, before eventually finding her way to a vaguely bait-and-switch conclusion. I suppose I was simply supposed to be intrigued enough for the next episode/book in the series (I was not). While there's nothing inherently wrong with the formula this book was written to, it's just a formula I don't find interesting, that I've seen too many times, and just plain didn't care about Lydia enough to see what she investigates next.
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