Book completed

[eve_prime]

Magic for Liars, by Sarah Gailey, who is a they/them person. Ivy Gamble is a private investigator in Oakland, California - her job is altogether seedy, she drinks too much, and she has no relationships of any value besides her aging, widowed father. Then she's asked to investigate a murder - at a local boarding school for magically gifted teens, where her estranged twin sister teaches.

At first I was surprised at how much I was enjoying reading a book about such an unhappy person, and then I just kept going. Things eventually improve for her, and the setting is great. Also, Gailey is a fine writer with some wonderful phrases and sentences. My favorite is about the whispering books in the Theoretical Magic section of the library, where the death took place. Someone irritatedly tries to shush the books: "But their whispering didn't stop, if anything, it increased, the books murmuring to each other like a scandalized congregation of origami Presbyterians."

I'd like to read a sequel, though the book isn't set up to need one. Gailey seems to be prolific, though, and has a several more recent books out, I think, even though this one's just from 2017, so maybe she has they have no plans to return.