Title: The Train
Series: The Spell Saga: Book One
Author: Cari Z
Publisher: Amazon/Kindle Unlimited
Length: 110 Pages
Category: Fantasy
Rating: 4 Stars
At a Glance: The case is solved in this fast-paced and fun novella, but there is still a puzzle to work out. I’m looking forward to learning more about Anton’s magic and discovering what adventures lie ahead for him and Camille next.
Reviewed By: Lisa
Blurb: Anton Seiber, journeyman thaumaturge, has finally escaped his dead-end job identifying bodies in the morgues of London. He’s off to seek a brighter future…or he would be, if he hadn’t just been robbed, mugged, and turned away from the only train that will help him reach that future on time.
A random meeting turns into a fight for his life and gifts Anton with two things: a knife that always kills whatever it stabs, and the chance to assume the identity of the man who just tried to kill him and board the train in his place.
He wasn’t counting on being found out by a lumière, one of the French emperor’s most powerful and intriguing spies. He wasn’t betting on a murder being committed on the train, or on being asked for his help identifying the culprits. He wasn’t asking to be drawn into a web of simmering insurrection, and he certainly didn’t want to find Lord Lumière so irresistible, but there’s no denying it.
Perhaps Anton will even tell him so…if he survives to the end of this journey.
Review: “What is the first rule of thaumaturgy? Evaluate whether or not it is actually necessary to use thaumaturgy.”
What could possibly be worse than being mugged, robbed, and then missing the one and only train that will deliver you to your future in time? The answer to that is a stabbing, impersonating a dead man, and then taking his place on said train . . . only to be discovered a fraud, then asked to assist on a murder investigation where someone is trying their level-best to make sure you don’t leave the train alive. This is the pickle Anton Seiber, journeyman thaumaturge, finds himself in, in Cari Z’s action/adventure/steampunk/historical fantasy, The Train.
Strangers on a train, any one of whom could be a murderer, compels Lord Camille Lumière to strike a bargain with Anton to use his magic and help find the killer. In the process of attempting to outrun and outwit—not to mention survive—the perpetrator, something new is brewing. An attraction that is being kept at a slow simmer for future books. Cari Z teases that chemistry out, tests it against Anton’s usual asocial nature, but there is little doubt the author’s imagination is the appeal of the introduction to her world and characters.
The case is solved in this fast-paced and fun novella, but there is still a puzzle to work out. I’m looking forward to learning more about Anton’s magic and discovering what adventures lie ahead for him and Camille next.
You can buy The Train here:
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