@dbjacksonauthor #Review THIEFTAKER by D.B. Jackson

Thieftaker review
Author: D.B. Jackson
4 out of 5 stars


Picked this one up at Dragon Con (read all about Dragon Con 2013 here), and since the author was there, I was able to have it signed! Check it out.


Book Info: Genre: Historical urban fantasy/mystery
Reading Level: Adult
Recommended for: those who enjoy historical fiction and urban fantasy
Trigger Warnings: murder, violence, torture
Animals: dog is killed

My Thoughts: This is a wonderfully twisty mystery, set in a fantastical version of history where magic and mayhem combine in an explosive manner. While Ethan didn't necessarily figure things out as quickly as I did, it's probably because I was seeing things from the outside and not being beaten up every few hours. That has to be a bit distracting, I would think.

While I saw complaints that Ethan didn't spend more time trying to track down the conjurer, I thought it was made pretty clear that the attempts he did make showed the conjurer to be too powerful to be tracked by normal means, and therefore probably not someone he wanted to confront before he was completely ready. I also saw complaints about Sephira's apparent lack of follow-through on her threats to kill Ethan, but again I thought it was made fairly plain that despite her attempts in anger, she actually found him to be valuable and preferred to have him around.

I really enjoyed the mixture of historical events with fantastical elements and a juicy mystery to solve. These sort of cross-genre books are always a lot of fun to read. While not perfect, it was all-in-all an entertaining and enjoyable read. If you like historical fiction, urban fantasy, and mysteries, then you should enjoy this blend of the three.

Series Information: The Thieftaker Chronicles
Book 0.5: A Spell of Vengeance
Book 1: Thieftaker
Book 2: Thieves' Quarry
Book 3: A Plunder of Souls, expected publication 7/8/2014 by Tor Books

Disclosure: I purchased this book for myself at Dragon Con 2013 and had it signed there. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis: 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 brooch 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.