Medusa's Web

A new Tim Powers book is always worth reading. One of the most original fantasists around, he doesn't compromise. For this book he has invented an entirely new occult technique and a whole subculture around it, but doesn't give the reader an obvious way in. For the first fifty to a hundred pages you'll be scratching your head but the effort pays off. Once you get to grips with the spiders, this becomes a gripping ghost story (sort of) and haunted house tale (kind of). It's not as good as his masterpiece Last Call, but then very few books are. Still highly recommended

I followed along with Google Maps as the characters drove around the Hollywood area.

Yes, the story caught me enough to keep on reading. But somehow the plot for me lacked the depth and sophistication of The Anubis Gates, which I still consider his masterpiece.