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I’m not surprised the reviews on this novel are so varied. Only a few chapters in, and I was just as torn. I found it chock-full of clichés, with a huge exposition dump to boot. The main character, a private detective, was down on her luck, drunk at a bar, and spewing her whole story to the bartender (and the reader). It followed so many of the usual beats I felt like I knew everything this book was—until it became more.

Magic for Liars follows Ivy Gamble, a detective investigating a murder on the private campus of a magical academy where her estranged sister, Tabitha, works. Seemingly, as with all private detectives, she’s in over her head. She isn’t magical. She isn’t even a good detective, by her own admission. All her usual cases involve cheating husbands, so a murder mystery is a big step up. Maybe too big.

On top of that, she has to deal with her sordid history with her sister, to do with their dying mother, and that’s where the real story begins to blossom. It’s not just a murder mystery; it’s a story about trauma and grief, and how it affects our lives, sometimes in the most subtle ways.

I listened to the audiobook narration by Xe Sands, and she absolutely knocks it out of the park as Ivy Gamble. I was reminded of another detective on audiobook—Claire DeWitt, narrated by Carol Monda. Both completely embodied their characters and elevated the written work.

By the end of the novel, I was invested. I was curious where the story would go and what would happen to these characters, and that’s the greatest gift, really. A feeling of belonging. A feeling of worth. All these positives don’t excuse the novel’s downfalls, but they help soften the rough edges and make it something worth reading.

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