Hard Magic (Paranormal Scene Investigations, #1)

by Laura Anne Gilman

PARANORMAL INVESTIGATIONS

A handpicked team trained to solve crimes

the regular police can’t touch—crimes of magic

My name’s Bonnie Torres. Recent college graduate, magic user and severely unemployed. Until I got a call out of nowhere to interview for a job I hadn’t applied for. It seemed too good to be true but I needed the work…

Two days later I’m a Private Paranormal Investigator—me and Nick, Sharon, Nifty and Pietr. Five twenty-somethings, thrown into an entirely new career in forensic magic, answerable only to the evidence, the truth.

The first job we get is a high-profile case – proving that the deaths of two Talents were murder, not suicide. Worse, there are people who want us to close up shop and go away. We’re sniffing out things they need to keep buried.

Looks as if this job is going to get interesting. The only problem is, we’re making it up as we go along.…

‘exciting, fast-paced, unpredictable’

– SF Site on Staying Dead

• ISBN10: 0778304965
• ISBN13: 9780778304968
• Publish Date: 15 July 2011 (first published 1 January 2010)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 24 July 2012
• Publish Country: CA
• Imprint: Mira Books
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 336
• Language: English
• URL: http://harpercollins.co.uk

Reviews

[wyvernfriend]

CSI: Magic; fun, and I want to read more in this series, it was very much episode 1

[MurderByDeath]

A bit of a slow starter, as it seemed to take almost a third of the book to set the scene and introduce the characters. But after that, I found it to be a very fast paced, exciting plot with a genuinely likeable protagonist. While the ending is fitting with the premise of the series: finding out the facts of a paranormal incident, not catching the killer, it still left me feeling a bit like the story didn't really end - or at least not in a satisfying manner. Still, I'll look for the second one, as I am interested in the characters enough to want to know what happens next.