M. N. Jolley

Levi Lawson stands accused. He’s already on probation for an earlier run-in with the magic authorities in Kansas City, and now he’s being blamed for a murder he didn’t commit. His friends among the magical authorities don’t want to help, citing “politics”. Something deep seem wrong within the KC magical community, and the only way for Levi to figure it out and prove he’s falsely accused is is for him to solve the murder himself.

Accused is M. N. Jolley’s first entry in his planned five book series The Kansas City Warlock Weekly. It was the Bronze Medalist in last year’s Book Blogger’s Novel of the Year Awards competition, and it’s easy to see why. It’s a murder mystery wrapped up in a fantasy novel, that’s set in an alternative Kansas City filled with magic potions and crystals, witches, warlocks, trolls, vampires, and more. The story unfolds in flashback, as Levi relates it while being interrogated by two counsellors (magic community policemen).

In this world, magic operates underground, outside the gaze of the everyday unmagical folk (the “straights” in the lingo of this world). Levi himself is not a member of the magical community - he’s not licensed to perform magic. But he uncovered the magic community as a young reporter and his editor agreed to publish a story on what he found. The story was magically quashed, and Levi found himself on probation after facing charges before the magical court.

Levi’s newspaper career seemed over, but he’s struck out on his own, trying to survive by starting a weekly newspaper aimed at KC’s small magical community. It’s while he’s working to gather stories for one of his first editions that he suddenly finds himself drawn into a murder scene.

Luckily for Levi he’s not alone in facing his accusation. Ben, his matching-app date right before things went haywire, steps up and helps Levi out. But it will take everything they can think of to get to the bottom of this mystery.

I’m a sucker for a good mystery, so needless to say I enjoyed this book. Jolley did a good job building out the characters in the book, especially Levi. The setting of the story, in the “small community” of magic practitioners in Kansas City, shades the book toward the “cozy mystery” end of the mystery book spectrum. But the plotline includes enough chase scenes and magical elements to also put it squarely in an urban fantasy realm.

I also appreciated the gay and nonbinary representation and loved how Jolley worked in that Levi is on the autism spectrum. These elements were a natural part of the overall story and helped to flesh it out.

But there’s not a lot of time spent fleshing out the magical world. The action comes too thick and fast for that. I suspect that over the arc of the whole series the magic world building will become clearer, but in this book some things seemed to come a bit out of the blue. For example, there wasn’t any real backstory before the appearance of a vampire, making it seem more like a plot device than an outgrowth of the world Levi and Ben inhabit.

Aside from small quibbles like that it’s a solid recommendation from me. A good story for fans of fantasy, who also love a good mystery. Four Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐.… (más)

4.5

Book source~ Tour

Levi Lawson sunk his entire savings and his soul into his weekly newspaper, The KC Warlock Weekly. But the magic community is small and most of the news travels by mouth, so he’s floundering. To put it mildly. But subscriber woes are the least of his worries right now. He’s been accused of murder and he needs to solve the case before he goes down for it. Not easy to do when people with magic are tracking you and Levi sucks at magic. And let’s not mention he’s unlicensed and shouldn’t be doing any. But when you’re running for your life, what are you gonna do? Hopefully not die while solving the murder.

It’s time for something completely different. I don’t think I’ve read a book written quite like this. Levi tells the story but it goes back and forth between the beginning of events and present when he’s in custody telling us (and the counselors) how it all went down from his POV. It switches from past back to present as the counselors have questions and then Levi dives right back in. As he tells his tale, the story unfolds. From a murder to the reason for the murder and finally, who did it. We get to meet many great characters along the way as Levi tries to figure out who the murderer is and why anyone would murder in the first place. It’s a rollicking good romp! My only complaint is a tiny one, there’s not a whole lot of world building going on. I’m not sure exactly how the magic community fits in with the regular peeps or how things are done and I honestly don’t understand why the “secret” is so important that a murder had to be committed to keep it so. I know it’s probably because Levi was running for his life against a ticking clock, so I hope there’s more depth to this world in the next book. Also, vampires are scary as fuck in this world. Yikes. I will definitely be picking up book 2 at some point.
Too many books, not enough time, and all that.… (más)