Review: Fabulous, in every sense of the word.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 09 29, 2013
Stephen Day and Lucien Vaudrey. Two men with very different histories that stem from the same poisoned seed."The Magpie Lord" is set in a ca. 1900 England that, but for the presence of "practitioners," who can control magic, is just what Sherlock Holmes would have known. KJ Charles doesn't make a big deal of setting the place and time, but she nonetheless does so without distracting anachronism and without pretense. Prose and dialogue are authentic and deftly handled. The sense of time and place, as well as the increasingly foreboding atmosphere, are wrought to full effect without any of the hamfisted theatrics that romance writers are wont to employ.  This is a writer worthy of Arthur Conan Doyle.Putting gay characters in a period setting is always a challenge, but KJ Charles does it elegantly and believably. Both characters, Lord Crane and Mr. Day, are complex and prickly - but both are ultimately admirable and honorable. Thrown together against their wills in a situation that neither fully understands, their collaboration takes them on a harrowing journey in the time-honored English romantic tradition of haunted country houses and cursed bloodlines. The story is full of surprises and discoveries that don't tax logic or the reader's intelligence.This is one of my favorite books in years. Although the start of a series, it stands alone quite perfectly. - I only hesitate about picking up the sequel because I fear it won't be as good as the first book.