Street Magic (Black London 01) by Caitlin Kittredge
When she was 16, Pete Caldecott witnessed the apparent death of punk rocker Jack Winter during a ritual as he attempted to raise an ancient spirit. Twelve years later, she is now DI Caldecott and has has followed in her late father's footsteps at Scotland Yard. Her latest case involves a missing child and when she follows up on a tip she discovers that the informant is Jack, who is alive and a heroin addict. As further children disappear, Pete forces Jack into detox and he joins Pete's quest to find them. In the process he reintroduces her to a world of magic that she had tried to convince herself didn't exist as well as the parallel realm within London called 'the Black' .
This is a fairly standard slice of 'gritty' urban fantasy though I found it extremely flawed, not for the story as such, but for the weakness of its London setting and aspects of characterisation. The author attempts to use UK English and seems to think the way to accomplish this is by embarking on an effing and blinding fest; so that that Jack and Pete can't utter a single sentence without the use of very strong language. They also shout at each other all the time. In general, it is a very shouty novel.
It is really obvious that it is written by an American, who probably briefly visited London and managed to write down a few names of tube stations and neighbourhoods, but who fails to convey any real sense of the vibrancy or richness of the city and its diverse population. The police procedural aspects are also extremely weak and aspects of daily life as well as the language proved constantly jarring and distracting for me as a Brit.
One example was that Pete seemed to have no problems driving across London quickly or always found a parking space. Now that is fantasy! I also found the assertion of Jack Winter as a punk rocker somewhat anachronistic as punk as a musical movement in the UK peaked in the 1970s, when Jack Winter (working backwards from the dates given and his stated age) would have still been a child. Maybe he was a punk wannabe, or post-punk revivalist? I rather suspected that the author was more than a little taken with Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and wanted to create a character like that though apparently without the dark wit that Joss Whedon brought to his creation. Humour is pretty non-existent in Pete and Jack's world.
The cover artist also obviously had no idea of the book's content, depicting a rather young and buff Jack when even the author had described him as being in his late 30s and emaciated and skeletal in appearance due to neglect and his addiction. I blame the publisher's for that as I am sure showing a realistic portrait of Jack would have been a turn-off. Personally I don't find heroin addiction attractive in any respect and found the reason given for Jack's addiction fairly weak. I won't say what it is but seriously this guy is supposed to be a mage of legendary reputation.
I could somewhat appreciate what drew Pete to Jack when she was a teenager. I knew a rocker when I was that age who was into magic and who,.like Pete says of Jack, "was magic". It is harder to see what the appeal was in the present day though in many ways Pete does come across as very immature and certainly lacks the discipline one would expect of a D.I. in the Met.
Then there was the issue of the cigarettes. I began to suspect that the author was doing product placement for Philip Morris by mentioning their Parliament brand every page or so. Now, I am sure that this brand could be bought via the internet and imported into the UK but it seemed weird. Did Kittredge think that because we have a Parliament that it would be a very English-sounding brand? Yes, yes I know it is a fantasy so doesn't have to reflect real life but still it was odd and again somewhat distracting from the storyline.
The book needed better editing in general as there were a couple of corkers such as Pete describing Jack as three and a half meters tall! Blimey! Or Jack ordering a pint of bitter and it being referred to as a lager a few paragraphs on.
It was noticeable that as Kittredge entered the final part of the book that she dropped a lot of the 'slang' and got on with telling the story. I did buy the first two books in this series together and a quick glance at the second indicates that she has toned down the language and the shouting. I also found an interview on-line where she said she wished she could go back and revise the first book's slang and so I am willing to cut her some slack as she obviously realised that her writing in this book wasn't convincing to her UK readers.