Welcome to Litsy!

I bailed 15 pages into this. It sounded like my cup of tea and then I started to read it. It's one of those books where the male author writes about a woman who only thinks about having sex with her boyfriend. Maybe she thinks about something else later in the book, but I'll never know.

Another great novel by Lebbon. The basic plot is that there is a secret trade in relics going on in the unseen world that thrives beneath London. Artefacts from a time long gone, priceless objects that come from mythical beasts. But are these really relics of eons ago, or more fresh....

I know that "whelmed" isn't really a feeling but that's kind of where I ended up with this. It's a horror-like thriller that has supernatural elements...sort of Dean Koontz-esque but it seemed to be missing that little extra piece I can't put my finger on. Some fairly graphic violence inside but the story just didn't grip me the way others have. I'll pick up the sequel to see if things improve.

If you need a quick read that is reasonably entertaining to forget a bad day or the newsfeed, this does the job. Boyfriend disappears, heroine studying criminology searches and plot rapidly turns supernatural. Reads just like a TV show, and probably wants to be one.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ of 5 ⭐️s

I picked this up while I was in an urban fantasy mood because the blurb mentions a "black market for arcane things" and that kind of thing spells "insta-buy" to me. But while the plot's fun and the worldbuilding functional, it's still lacks oomph. Guess it might be because the characters are really bland. Hopefully things get better in later books.