While this book originally didn't wow me when I started reading it, I pretty much was glued to it after the first quarter of the book. Thematically, it fills the same niche as the Peter Grant series or the Checquy Files occupy. Weird urban fantasy set in contemporary London. This novel is missing the incredibly likeable protagonist that the Peter Grant books have, and there's none of the black, quirky humour that The Rook has. However, the world-building turned out incredibly interesting, and Matthew Swift has some interesting depths to him.

As far as the story goes, the novel starts somewhat confusingly, with Matthew Swift waking up after two years, in an apartment that is no longer his own. Turns out Mr. Swift is a sorcerer who has been dead for the past two years, and all his sorcerer friends and acquaintances appear to be dead as well. A conspiracy of 'concerned citizens', various magical or religious groups, are gathering to defeat Swift's former master Bakker, and Swift is swept right along with that.

As soon as we actually start learning how Swift died, and why he keeps talking about himself as we, that's when this novel starts kicking in. It's written incredibly well, and I am looking forward to reading more of his fascinating sorcery that seriously puts the urban in urban fantasy.

4.5 out of 5 stars.