Thieftaker
Author: D.B. Jackson
Publisher: Tor/Forge
Pub Date: July 3, 2012
ISBN: 9780765327611
A fascinating alternate history of pre-Revolutionary Boston is told in THIEFTAKER. Ethan Kaille is a wizard and a thieftaker, a private citizen who recovers stolen items and brings in the thief. He hunts down thieves for money and tries to keep his wizardry under wraps so that he won’t be branded as a witch. His wizardry is abetted by a dour demon who appears at his command, but is most disdainful of him though he does protect him. Mostly, he’s managed to stay under wraps, out of the eagle eye of his biggest competitor, the beautiful and dangerous, Sephira Price, who basically runs the town. He leads a relatively normal, though conflicted and often on the edge of poverty life. That is until the daughter of a prominent man is murdered with what looks like witchcraft.
Ethan is called upon to look into the murder, which provokes the ire of Sephira, who feels he is encroaching on her territory, mainly the deep pockets of the town’s elite. As he probes deeper into the murder, his own life is endangered. With hired thugs, a wizard of great power, the local law enforcement all out to crush him, it is all he can do to solve the mystery.THIEFTAKER isn’t all about murder, witchcraft and mayhem. No, in Ethan Kaille, the author has created a wonderfully complex character with layers of emotion. His conflicted feelings for both his old love and new, his family, his demon and the way he struggles with his wizardry all make him incredibly interesting and all too human.
Pre-Revolutionary Boston is vividly painted and draws the reader into this teeming city of intrigue, anger, commerce and secrets. Mobs, suspicion, division of loyalists and rebels, and the politics of the time are intricately woven into the story, making it a fascinating peek into the time. A historical figure or two make an appearance in this book, with a deft touch that I found added even more historical realism to this gem of a book, though the author also manages to blend in fallacy with his fact and make it seem even more real.
THIEFTAKER is an exciting romp through the streets of Colonial Boston with a darned good murder mystery. Highly recommended!
The publisher generously has provided a giveaway to AmoXcalli readers! Five (5) lucky people will get a copy of the finished book! All you have to do is enter below via the Rafflecopter widget and I made sure there are plenty of ways to get entries. Best of luck!
To find out more about thieftakers, Colonial Boston and more, visit the author’s website.
Publisher’s blurb:
Boston, 1767: In D.B. Jackson’s Thieftaker, revolution is brewing as the British Crown imposes increasingly onerous taxes on the colonies, and intrigue swirls around firebrands like Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty. But for Ethan Kaille, a thieftaker who makes his living by conjuring spells that help him solve crimes, politics is for others…until he is asked to recover a necklace worn by the murdered daughter of a prominent family.
Suddenly, he faces another conjurer of enormous power, someone unknown, who is part of a conspiracy that reaches to the highest levels of power in the turbulent colony. His adversary has already killed–and not for his own gain, but in the service of his powerful masters, people for whom others are mere pawns in a game of politics and power. Ethan is in way over his head, and he knows it. Already a man with a dark past, he can ill afford to fail, lest his livelihood be forfeit. But he can’t stop now, for his magic has marked him, so he must fight the odds, even though he seems hopelessly overmatched, his doom seeming certain at the spectral hands of one he cannot even see.
About the Author:
D.B. Jackson is the new pen name of an award-winning author of more than a dozen books — including epic fantasies, media tie-ins, and a book on writing — as well as several short stories. His work has been translated into a dozen languages. He is now writing historical fantasy; hence the name change. (Publishers call it “author branding” and it’s not nearly as painful as it sounds.) “The Tavern Fire,” the first short story penned under the name “D.B. Jackson” appears in the new anthology, After Hours: Tales of the Ur-Bar, edited by Joshua Palmatier and Patricia Bray. The first D.B. Jackson novel, Thieftaker, volume I of Chronicles of the Thieftaker, a historical urban fantasy set in pre-Revolutionary Boston, is due out in July 2012 from Tor Books. The second Thieftaker novel is already in the works.
Disclosure: A free copy of this book was furnished by the publisher for review via NetGalley, but providing a copy did not guarantee a review. This information is provided per the regulations of the Federal Trade Commission.
