Tag: Arcane Casebook

Ghost of a Chance by Dan Willis: The Odds are Stacked Against this Runewright

Self-Published Authors Appreciation Week

Ghost of a ChanceGhost of a Chance

by Dan Willis

DETAILS:
Series: Arcane Casebook, #2
Publication Date: March 13, 2019
Format: Kindle Edition
Length: 318 pg.
Read Date: July 21-22, 2022
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“How do you let yourself get talked into this?” he said out loud, mostly to keep his mind off his surroundings.

He knew very well what had brought him here, of course. Money.

Or rather, the lack of it.

What’s Ghost of a Chance About?

Despite the success of the events of In Plain Sight, he’s barely scraping by. The financial straits that put Alex into these less-than-savory surroundings are threatening Alex’s agency. It doesn’t seem like this is a new situation for him—but it might be worse this time than usual.

He gets the chance to make some good money when one of the more powerful sorcerers in the city hires him to find a stolen invention of his that will both enrich the sorcerer and make life better for the residents of NYC. While he’s looking for that, Alex is approached by a young woman whose husband has seemingly been kidnapped. Neither of these searches should be that difficult for him, but something is preventing his runes from working—so he has to approach these hunts using his mind, not his magic.

And because that’s not quite enough on his plate, Alex is also hired by a woman to find out who killed her husband—there’s been a series of murders that are making headlines. People are being killed by someone who leaves no trace—not only that, the victims have been found in locked rooms, with no exits.

As if that’s not enough, Alex is dealing with the damage he did to his own health (and, seemingly, his lifespan) from when he rescued the city months earlier. Basically, Alex has a ghost of a chance to make it out of these next few days intact and successful.

So, what did I think about Ghost of a Chance?

“If the details in the story are correct, the victims were all found alone in locked rooms,” Alex said. “The police had to break in each time.”

“What does that tell you?”

“Locked rooms mean suicide,” Alex said with a shrug.

“You don’t sound sure.”

“According to the story, the victims were all stabbed twice in the chest.”

The year’s a little more than half over, and I’ve read a decent number of locked room mysteries so far—I can’t help but wonder if I have more headed my way before 2022 is out. This one held its own with the others I’ve read this year, sure, this one involved the use of magic, so it’s a little easier. I did like that magic was utilized in a way that neither Iggy, Alex, or anyone who reads a newspaper in New York had apparently thought of before—so it was a little easier to pull off both the killings and the escape. So it’s a little different than what, say, M.W. Craven gave us.

I couldn’t help but notice how structurally similar this was to In Plain Sight—three cases that don’t seem to have anything to do with each other, one of which involves the police threatening Alex if he doesn’t succeed. The two novels don’t follow the same outline, but the similarities stand out. But those are thoughts that came to me after I finished—while I was reading, all I thought was that I was having a really good time. It’s when I start having those thoughts while I’m reading that I think we’re headed for trouble.

I really appreciate what Willis has done here—the world feels pretty established and lived in already. The primary characters are pretty well-fleshed out at this point (which isn’t to say we can’t learn more about them) and I’m ready to see more of the magic systems at work. There is a seemingly effortless charm to these books. I was entertained throughout and kept wondering why it’d taken me so long to return to this series—I don’t intend to repeat that.


3 Stars

20 Books of Summer

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The Friday 56 for 7/22/22: Ghost of a Chance by Dan Willis

The Friday 56This is a weekly bloghop hosted by Freda’s Voice.

RULES:
The Friday 56 Grab a book, any book.
The Friday 56 Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
The Friday 56 Find a snippet, short and sweet.
The Friday 56 Post it.

from Page 56% of:
Ghost of a Chance

Ghost of a Chance by Dan Willis

“What’s this?” he asked as she pulled out a small key ring.

For a brief moment a frown crossed her lips, but she replaced it almost instantly with her sardonic smile.

“This is the reason I’m here,” she said, inserting a key in the lock. She turned it and pushed the door open. “Don’t touch the handle,” she said, reaching inside to switch on a magelight. “It’s got a needle coated in a nasty contact poison hidden inside it.”

Alex raised an eyebrow at her, but she just shrugged.

“What?” she said. “Don’t you have security measures around your valuables?”

The Friday 56 for 7/9/21: In Plain Sight by Dan Willis

The Friday 56This is a weekly bloghop hosted by Freda’s Voice.

RULES:
The Friday 56 Grab a book, any book.
The Friday 56 Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
The Friday 56 Find a snippet, short and sweet.
The Friday 56 Post it

from Page 56 of:
In Plain Sight

In Plain Sight by Dan Willis

“My point is that we don’t know what we’re dealing with, and until we do, I suggest we limit possible exposure.”

“My boys have been in here for almost an hour,” Callahan said.

“And they’re probably fine, but let’s move everyone out of this room until I can run some tests.”

“All right,” Callahan agreed, then he shouted for everyone to stop what they were doing and go. “Don’t be too long, Doc,” he said once his men were gone. “I’m sure the Chief has heard about this by now and he’s going to want a report…soon.”

“We’ll be as fast as we can,” Iggy said and Callahan withdrew.

“You said you didn’t think it’s contagious,” Alex said once Callahan was out of earshot.

“I just wanted him and his men away from this room,” Iggy said. “It’s going to be hard enough to figure out what happened here without the police stomping all over everything.”

In Plain Sight by Dan Willis: A P.I. with a Magical Edge Races the Clock in this UF Series Start

In Plain Sight

In Plain Sight

by Dan Willis
Series: Arcane Casebook, #1

Kindle Edition, 311 pg.
2018

Read: July 1-5, 2021

What’s In Plain Sight About?

Alex Lockerby is a P.I. in the late 1930’s New York. He occasionally consults with the police, but most of them don’t respect him. Generally, he’s taking small-time jobs (lost pets, etc.) to make ends meet—and it’s largely because his gorgeous secretary finds those jobs for him.

Oh, Alex is a Runewright—by drawing elaborate designs in a (generally) special ink and then setting the drawing on fire he activates various things—finding charms, disguises, a way to look at the past of a room/item, healing, etc.

His ability doesn’t necessarily mean riches aplenty or fame—it means that he has an edge in certain circumstances, but that’s it.

In this novel, Alex is dealing with three cases—a distraught young woman hires him to look for a missing brother. A case he consulted on for the police didn’t go the way he said it would, and he has only three days to fix the problem or he’ll be charged with something and his friend on the force will be unemployed. And, a local church’s soup kitchen—volunteers, priests, nuns, and those being fed–are killed by an impossibly fast-moving disease, and Alex (with the guidance of his medical doctor mentor) needs to track down the source of the disease.

The clock is ticking to deal with all three of these—also in the mix are the NYPD, the FBI, a powerful sorcerer, and an ages-old secret that threatens to destabilize the magic world.

Magic System

There are, we’re told, three types of magic users in this world: Alchemists, Sorcerers, and Runewrights. We don’t get to see a lot of Alchemy (but we hear a little about it). We see enough of Sorcery to get a pretty good idea what it’s like. But the star of the show is the use of and making of Runes.

Willis’s version of Runes are similar to Hearne’s Sigils, but it’s only similar (various wizards, witches, and other magic users from various UF series are more similar than these, though).

I liked the way that all three versions of magic are used, and interweave with each other. Also, while various magic users aren’t necessarily esteemed (Alex is dismissively called “scribbler”, for example), they’re all out in the open, selling their services, both on small scales and large scales.

We need more UF where the magic is out in the open—all the various series with a dozen different ways that the magic (and so on) is hidden from the general populace is getting tired. Magic being an everyday thing, something commercial…I like seeing that.

1930’s P.I.

We’re supposed to get a hard-boiled P.I.-feel from Alex here. Philip Marlowe with magic, kind of a thing. It’s close, but it feels sanitized. Safe. Really, Alex Lockerby is more Dixon Hill than Marlowe or Sam Spade.

I’m not saying I didn’t like the idea or the execution—I enjoyed it. It just felt tame.

So, what did I think about In Plain Sight?

This was fun—inventive, cleverly told, and a premise/magic system that is a breath of fresh air.

I appreciated Willis’ voice and style—I do wish he’d made things a bit more nuanced, a bit harder to figure out (although there is a reveal late in the book that took me by surprise), but it’s the first book—a setup for the series as a whole, and that’s not easy to do.

There’s a lot of charm to the writing and the characters, I can easily see this series becoming a favorite, until then, this was a fun way to spend a couple of hours, and the rest of the series looks to be the same. I’m looking forward to diving into the rest, and suspect you would be as entertained as I was.


3 Stars

20 Books of Summer '21

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