Thieves’
Quarry by D.B. Jackson, Thieftaker Chronicles #2
Boston, Province of Massachusetts Bay, September 28, 1768
When one hundred sailors of King George III’s Royal
Navy are mysteriously killed on a ship in Boston Harbor. Ethan is thrust unto
dire peril. For he-and hot Boston’s premier thieftaker, Sephira Pryce - is
asked to find the truth behind their deaths. City Sheriff Edmund Greenlead
suspects conjuring was used in the dastardly crime, and even Pryce knows that
Ethan is the better equipped to contend with matter of what most of Boston
considers dark arts. But even Ethan is daunted by magic powerful enough to fell
so many in a single stroke. When he starts to investigate, he realizes that the
mass murderer will stop at nothing to evade capture. And making his task more
difficult is the British fleet’s occupation of the city after the colonias’
violent protest after the seizure of John Hancock’s ship. Kaille will need all
his own magic, street smarts, and a bit of luck to keep this Boston massacre from
giving the hotheads of the Colonial Boston an excuse for inciting a riot- or
worse.
I came across this series a while ago, and firstly I
thought that I was dealing with a new author. After looking up some information
about D.B Jackson I actually found out that it is a pseudonym for David B. Coe!
One of my favorite authors. I have reviewed the Blood of the Forelands series,
but he is also known for the Winds of the Forelands and his LonTobyn Chronicles
for which he was awarded the William L. Crawford award for the book Children of
Amarid. I have been a huge fan of his inventive, creative and easy writing but
in keeping the setting and pacing spot-on and unpredictable. Unfortunately I
haven’t been able to read Thieftaker yet, the first book in the series, but I hope
to get around to it soon.
Thieves’ Quarry takes place in Boston in the mid
1700’s, where you meet up with the main protagonist, thieftaker Ethan Kaille. A
thieftaker is a bit comparable to a bounty hunters/criminal investigator. Ethan
is somewhat of a seasoned veteran in this line of work, but he has a slight
edge while carrying out his job. He is a conjurer, also known as a speller or
for the “common” folk a witch. Now this conjuring part is just awesome. It is
carried out in such a cool way, showing a great versatility in spell casting
towards various degrees of difficulties, it did remind me a bit of the Mettai
magic in his “Blood of the Forelands” series. However D.B. Jackson does add
another level to it by making it possible to conjure not only with the conjurer’s
own blood but also with herbs and elements, and even someone else’s blood.
You’ve got elemental spells, living spells and killing spells (these are the
most powerful). And just lastly, everytime a conjurer casts a spell, a ghost
appears, what the meaning of this is eludes me but it must have some
importance! Like I said it was pretty cool to read about how this was used in
making Thieves’ Quarry more supernatural, especially given the Latin twist to
it, the conjurers have to recite the spells in Latin phrasings. But I do have
one small remark, on the first a few spells were cast but later there was a lot
of conjuring going on, mainly by blood casting and it seemed to me that there
is not limitation on how many times you can cast before you get fatigued. With Ethan
and other conjurers running around conjuring constantly it did lose a bit of
its mysteriousness about it. Still, I can continue for hours about this element
in the book because it just awesome.
Let’s put the magic on the side. The story of Thieves’ Quarry focuses like I
mentioned above on Ethan Kaille, now I do not know his past that well, not
having read the first book, but I must say that starting with Thieves’ Quarry
you still get to learn a lot of his past and especially the introducing chapter
give a nice grip on the events that make Ethan, well Ethan. Like the hostility,
rivalry and somehow needing of each other between Ethan and the other
thieftaker in Boston Sephira Pryce. There is a definite history between that
makes them act this way, in the end though I do think that there is a certain
love-hate relationship between them where they can’t stand each other but when
they truly need each other to solve the important cases they work together,
though begrudgingly.
But lets take a closer look at Ethan. I really liked
his character, he is shown in a most human way, easy relatable. There are
enough references towards Ethan’s past, his dissertation, time spent in the
goal, his turn around working as a thieftaker and even his family. On the whole
his characters is like what you see in most urban fantasy books, and what
inspires the private investigators. He is fast with his tongue, has his street
smarts and has the natural confidence, and let’s not forget his dash of witty
humor. It is also mainly by the hate towards the conjurers in the book that
Ethan characters gets more depth, his “kind” is feared by most and Ethan has to
fend off more than a few occasions where he is being threatened, going as far a
being put to death on a pyre. The narration in the book is done with a third
person way, and though you do not see the story through Ethan’s perspectives it
does somehow manages to get Ethan’s thoughts shown just right. It’s hard to
explain, it is something that you have to experience yourself, the writing is
neat, fast-paced and very enjoyable.
As for the storyline, Ethan is investigating a
mysterious murder of a hundred people that were aboard the HMS Graystone. In
his race against time to solve this case before drastic action will be taken
against the other conjurers of Boston, Ethan’s adventures aren’t without
problems. D.B. Jackson keeps the pacing spot on and somehow forces you to keep
on reading. He managed to put down a great detective in Ethan, forcing him in
tight situation in which he only sometimes just barely manages to escape from. The
plot of Thieves’ Quarry is unpredictable, there was a great build up of a
certain direction in which the story would go but all of a sudden this was
abandoned by a very cool twist. However the follow up of the new direction in
which the story went wasn’t rushed at all instead, doing a little bit of
re-thinking of the earlier events, allowed everything to fall into place.
Furthermore the later chapters introduced a whole new promise of conjuring
itself, which I am eager to hope to see explored in the following books
Just as a concluding remark. Thieves’ Quarry is a
awesome read. It went above my expectations. I have been a great fan of David
B. Coe’s works and again he shows that putting down a great story in a dynamic
world with human and relatable characters is right down his alley. However Thieves' Quarry is just brimming with the promise of magic, not the straight forward kind of way either. The Latin inspired conjurings work their magic in the historical Boston Backdrop. D.B. Jackson manages
to deftly take urban fantasy back a couple of hundred years and blend it together with
real historical facts. I think I just found a new favorite series in Thieftaker Chronicles, heck skip the “think” part, I found it!! Read this book
you wont regret it.
---------------------------
On a slightly other note, David B. Coe is running a fundraiser with a giveaway of a signed copy of
Thieftaker the first book in the series for the tragic events that happened
during the Boston Marathon earlier this year.