A MAdness of Angels, Kate Griffin

3 and half out of five

Urban fantasy / magic realism in London. We’re dropped into a body in present day London. Eventually we come to realise that it is the body of Matthew Swift, sorcerer, deceased. Or he was, until now. Bless, he then finds out all his friends are dead, killed by the same thing that killed him – a shadow known as Hunger. Quickly found by a bunch of ‘concerned citizens’ he begins to track who he suspects had him killed, and the author begins to reveal just how Matthew came back – and what he is now. Come be we, come be free.

While not a totally original concept the voice and style of this piece is beautiful – if difficult to read in large chinks at a time. London is both faithfully described and an entirely new and otherwordly place, if only you know its secrets. Unfortunately the lavish description sometimes slows the pace to a crawl. The author likes to keep things from teh reader too – which seems odd as it’s written in First Person – so the narrator is Matthew Swift. And he doesn’t tell us what he knows. Indeed, it was several pages before I knew the narrator was male, and dozens before I knew his name. And Matthew knows what he is, at least partially, but the reader is kept in the dark. Tricky to pull off in first person without annoying the reader, and only partially successful here, for me at least. Every time he revealed something I asked myself ‘Couldn’t you have told me earlier rather than making a big mystery about it?’

Still, an engaging book, stylishly written.