Street Magic [Mass Market Paperback]

This is an extremely good start to a series - well-structured and original, with unexpected plot developments and convincing characters who are deep and finely-drawn enough to hold the reader's interest. Rather than just presenting us with a cardboard cut-out hardboiled-but-vulnerable heroine and bad-boy anti-hero, the author slowly peels back the layers of backstory at judicious intervals throughout the book to reveal credible reasons for Pete's prickliness and Jack's damage. She also avoids overstretching the suspension of disbelief that is necessary for any fantasy story, by inserting authentically gritty touches - such as the grim realities of using heroin to numb mental pain.

The Black and its assorted denizens are comparable to Simon Green's Nightside, but only to the extent that fans of that series are likely to enjoy this one. Jack Winter's physical description is a touch reminiscent of Spike in Buffy the Vampire slayer, but a sly reference to Billy Idol (to whom Spike is an homage) in the text indicates that this is a conscious credit rather than a crib.

So why only 3 stars? Because the catch is that while the book is set in London, it is not written by an English native, and while the direct speech might be enough like that of a Brit to be accepted in the US, to an English reader it sets the teeth on edge and spoils what is otherwise a very impressive read. The mistakes are subtle, but grating - 'bugger all', for instance, is generally slang for 'nothing' in UK English and is inaccurately used here. Nor does using 'bloody' as punctuation in almost every character's dialogue (it appears at least twice on every single page) substitute for an authentic written English accent - the general effect is of something translated from another tongue by someone to whom UK English is a second language - grammatically accurate but the vocabulary use is just a bit off. If Ms Kittredge sorts out this weakness in future books, the Black London novels could become one of the best new series to hit the fantasy arena.

**Since first posting this review on Amazon.co.uk, other British readers have also commented adversely on Ms Kittredge's grasp (or lack thereof) of UK slang and speech patterns. It's a great pity, but there is still time for her to correct this one flaw before the next book in the series is published. Let's hope ...

I enjoyed this story so much! Pete (short for a horrible first name--but I won't spoil the surprize by telling you what it is!) and Jack Winter are opposites who attract. Both are foul-mouthed and take-no-prisoners personalities, but Jack is a jerk/thief/liar and Pete is a cop who is tough enough to do the job. Together their dialog and interactions are highly entertaining.

I was really impressed by the quality of writing in this book and intend to read the rest of the series. The author's Nocturne City books are a different sort of voice entirely,and I like this series start a lot more, frankly.

The only real flaws to this book were, for me, very ignorable. Some of the fight scenes were a bit too glossed over, and sometimes I found fault with them. Like, for example, when one sorcerer is dragging Pete along with her struggling, she's all helpless, and I didn't get the impression she was faking that. Yet in the next scene she gets free of him easily enough. We also have Pete not recalling the incident that leads into the story, and the reveal about that is a bit inconsistent and rough in that we aren't clearly shown when Pete is pretending not to remember the incident or when she actually doesn't. The moment of change is not clearly shown. It's minor stuff, but important nitty-gritty detail stuff that a good edit should have caught. These little inconsistencies are what dropped this from a five-star to a four-star review.

Overall, though, a great read--if you can handle the constant use of the "c word" and other foul language. (I know that puts some people off, but I found it suited the character of Jack.)

This could have been a great book, the world building is imaginative, the characters are cool and quirky. I was really looking forward to reading a new urban fantasy based in London as I'm from that part of the UK but I was sadly disappointed with the dialect. Okay, Kittredge gets it right in some places but very wrong in others. It's mainly to do with cussing, there was far too much of it for a start and some of the words like 'bugger all' were used in completely the wrong context. The word 'sod' and 'git' is rarely used unless you're a kid or you're in a dodgy soap opera where you don't have the authority to swear. It was unrealistic and instead of using those words she should have just left them out. I tried to get past it because I thought the storyline was good but it kept throwing me off course.

What a shame. I wouldn't have minded reading the next one but I don't think I would get through it.