Magic for Liars

★ ★ ★ 1/2 (rounded up)
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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But this? A real murder case? This was the kind of thing that private detectives didn't do anymore. It was what had made me get my PI license in the first place―the possibility that I might get to do something big and real, something nobody else could do. I didn't know the first thing about solving a murder, but this was my chance to find out if I could really do it. If I could be a real detective, instead of a halfway-there failure. If this part of my life could be different from all the other parts, all the parts where I was only ever almost enough.

I won't try to pinpoint the first lie I told myself over the course of this case. That's not a useful thread to pull on. The point is, I really thought I was going to do things right this time. I wasn't going to fuck it up and lose everything. That's what I told myself as I stared at the old picture of me and Tabitha.

This time was going to be different. This time was going to be better. This time, I was going to be enough.

When a gruesome murder is discovered at The Osthorne Academy of Young Mages, where her estranged twin sister teaches Theoretical Magic, reluctant detective Ivy Gamble is pulled into the world of untold power and dangerous secrets. She will have to find a murderer and reclaim her sister―without losing herself.

Potter

The Magicians

Here's the truth about most detective work: it's boring, grueling, and monotonous. It involves a lot of being in the right place at the wrong time. But if you spend enough hours being in the right place, eventually, it'll be the right time. You have to be able to recognize it.

The other active cases were small potatoes-two disability claims, three cheating spouses, one spouse who wasn't cheating after all but whose husband couldn't believe that she had really taken up pottery. She was pretty good at it too.

I've always had a good memory for names. Someone once told me at a conference that's all it really takes to be a private detective: a good memory for names and faces, an eyeball for details, and. a halfway decent invoicing system.

and

Magic for Liars