May Contain Traces of Magic

J. W. Wells & Co. #6

by Tom Holt

A novel set in the magical offices of The Portable Door, now a majorly fantastical film starring Christoph Waltz, Sam Neill, and Miranda Otto.   “Tom Holt may be the most imaginative satirist to land on our shores since Douglas Adams.” — Christopher Moore, New York Times bestselling author  

There are all kinds of products. The good ones. The bad ones. The ones that stay in the garage moldering for years until your garden gnome makes a home out of it. Most are harmless if handled properly, even if they do contain traces of peanuts. But some are not – not the ones that contain traces of magic. Chris Popham wasn't paying enough attention when he talked to his SatNav. Sure, she gave him directions, never talked back to him, and always led him to his next spot on the map with perfect accuracy. She was the best thing in his life. So was it really his fault that he didn't start paying attention when she talked to him? In his defense, that was her job. But when "Take the next right" turned into "Excuse me," that was when the real trouble started. Because sometimes a GPS isn't a GPS – sometimes it's an imprisoned soul trapped inside a metal box that will do anything it can to get free. And some products you just can't return.The J.W. Wells & Co. The Portable Door In Your Dreams Earth, Air, Fire and Custard You Don't Have to Be Evil to Work Here, But It Helps The Better Mousetrap May Contain Traces of MagicOther titles from Tom Doughnut When It's A Jar The Outsorcerer's Apprentice The Good, the Bad and the Smug The Management Style of the Supreme Beings An Orc on the Wild SideHolt Writing as K. J. Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City How To Rule An Empire and Get Away With It A Practical Guide to Conquering the World

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Humor, Urban Fantasy, Comedy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Supernatural

370 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Tom Holt (Thomas Charles Louis Holt) is a British novelist.
He was born in London, the son of novelist Hazel Holt, and was educated at Westminster School, Wadham College, Oxford, and The College of Law, London.
Holt's works include mythopoeic novels which parody or take as their theme various aspects of mythology, history or literature and develop them in new and often humorous ways. He has also produced a number of "straight" historical novels writing as Thomas Holt and fantasy novels writing as K.J. Parker.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

This instalment of Tom Holt’s J.W. Wells & Co. series is the first not to include any characters at all from the original trilogy but it’s none the worse for that. In fact, this is my favourite of the series so far and the first to get the full 5 stars from me.

Why is that? Well, this might sound like a strange thing to say about a comedy but this book really got me where I live. Part of it is probably because the protagonist is a travelling salesman and (deep, dark, secret confession time) I used to be one too.

>Pauses to wait for hundreds of his Goodread followers to unfriend him.<

I know, it’s shameful but it’s true; many, many moons ago, I used to work in sales. If it helps, I absolutely hated it and I got out as soon as I could but, nonetheless, I know what that life’s like and it really helped me connect to the protagonist of this book.

It’s also probably partly because I also know what it feels like to not be living the life you ‘should’ be living, largely due to forces entirely beyond your control. In the book, those forces are demons and elves, in my life... well, probably not, but who can say for sure? ;-)

These personal connections aside, I also found this to be the funniest of the series so far, with the most engaging plot and the ending (despite not being the ending I was hoping for) was beautiful. I’ve only got one more book in this series to go and it’s going to have a hard time following this one...

My next book: Letters From a Lost Uncle

[Lance Greenfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

OMG

If I was inclined to say "Oh my God!", which I am not, I would have said it over a hundred times whilst reading this book.

The story is about Chris, a salesman of magical good such as fold-away parking spaces and instant water. From the moment that he walks into the shop of one of his clients and finds the shopkeeper lying on the floor with his head mostly hacked off by a horrible demon, who is still scarily present and sitting on the top shelf observing Chris, his life falls to pieces. He has no idea who he can trust, whether they be human beings or magical beings.

Transdimensional travel is commonplace, which complicates matters enormously, and confuses Chris at every turn, even when guided by his mysterious magical SatNav.

To cap it all, his girlfriend, Karen, is hardly speaking to him and he is lumbered with a freshly graduated, objectionable apprentice, Angela, for his sales rounds.

There is so much imaginative creativity in this story, that you can't help but enjoy it. Watch out for subtle little twists, like the reference to the copra mines of Kiribati. There is always loads of copra falling with the coconuts onto the beaches of Kiribati, but I have never heard of it being mined before!

Read it and you will have a lot of fun.

[Mostyn Fero · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reminiscent of Douglas Adam’s Long dark teatime for the soul, Stoppard’s addition to the (I would guess) niche sun-genre of “British dark comedy modern setting fantasy” is a humorous and engaging tale. The milquetoast traveling salesman main character and modern (2000’s) English Midlands setting offer a great foil for the absurd and fantastical elements and characters. A good read for entertaining yourself on a plane, train, or automobile journey as long as you don’t suffer from motion sickness or an allergy towards British humor. My only real criticism of the book is that I feel the female characters could have been written better and the book being written from the perspective of a run of the mill unenlightened Englishman means there are a few jokes that don’t land as well for me (A few “haha women, am I right?” kind of jokes).

[Linda Killen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Started out slowly but got much better. I'm still not sure I know exactly what happened at the end. Will read again at some point to find out for sure 😆

[Gwynnie Kowalski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who knew that I'd like this random book that I picked up in Half Price books so much! Totally my kind of story--magic, demons, dry British humor, and the lots of the mundane. I thought that the twists got a bit repetitive towards the end, but in all, this was a really enjoyable read :)

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comic fantasy madness blending wit, humour and mind games into a satirical look on life. Was a fun read, I'll try More Holt.

[Joanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meet Chris Popham, a salesman miserable with his lot. He's been in a long term relationship with Karen, a girl he knew from school he went on the rebound with that never ended when Karen's best mate Jill turned him down. Still in love with her, Chris meets up with Jill once a week, and wishes things were different. He's not too happy with his job either, trying his hardest to sell magical products such a portable parking space, powdered water, and instaglamour cream, and not having the best of luck with it.

Then his SatNav starts talking to him, and everything changes. A trainee, Angela, is lumbered on him to show the ropes, and demons start showing up. In his car. They're after the One who is to Come, but he has no idea who she is, and why he's involved in it all. Soon he starts wishing his life was back the way it was before, but no such luck. Just who is the One who is to Come? What do the demons want with her? Why are the demons showing up where Chris goes? And why on earth is his SatNav talking to him?

Wow. Just wow. This book is awesome! Tom Holt is a British author, and it's obvious from the writing. Such a typical British voice, and British humour! I giggled out loud on more than one occasion reading this book, it was just fantastic!

The characters in this book are great, but none match up to Chris. He's just so sarcastic and simple, and sometimes annoying, but you can't help but feel for him when his crappy life is turned upside down, and is genuinely flabbergasted at everything going on around him. He doesn't know what to do, and makes mistakes more than once, but you can't blame him. I can't really go into too much detail without spoiling things, but he's just adorable - a bit like an abandoned dog.

The plot of this book is just brilliant! You never know how things are going to turn out, who's telling the truth and who's lying, and just what will happen next. You find yourself trying to figure things out along with Chris, but then another disaster will happen, and your back to square one when more things are put in front of you to think about. It's mind boggling until the very end, and then everything makes sense. It's just such a fantastically written, and pretty damn funny book, with such an amazing plot. I highly recommend this book, it's just so awesome!

[H R Koelling · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the second Tom Holt novel I've read and they both started out intriguing me, but in the end were ultimately disappointing.

There are certainly a few laughs in this book, but they are too far and few between the narrator's constant analysis of what-if's as a means of pushing forward the plot. I sometimes felt I was trapped in the mind of a guy on amphetamines as he contemplated and analyzed what might happen next in HIS life, and the lives of the other characters. It wore me down after awhile because it felt like the author was speaking to the reader via the protagonist as a way to explain what was happening in the book, rather than the protagonist actually doing something.

I don't even know why I finished this book except for the fact that I wanted to know what everyone was doing buying the powdered water, which I don't think was adequately given the weight it should have considering the build-up throughout the novel.

In the future, I plan to skip reading any further Holt books. His humor just doesn't jive with mine and his writing style isn't as polished as I would expect from an author of his repute.

[Melissa McShane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I probably should have been frustrated by how often the main character Chris gets jerked around by the women in his life. His boss is good but his car (or whatever's possessing it) is evil--no, the car's actually on his side--hang on, the car's using him for her own purposes, so is his boss, and so is his girlfriend--it really should have been stupid. But I liked how Chris's understanding of reality kept changing as new facts came to light, and how the confusion multiplied the closer he got to the end of the story. Also, it was a sweet and satisfactory ending, and since it's set in the J.W. Wells world (and I love that series) I enjoyed it all round.

[✘✘ Sarah ✘✘ (former Nefarious Breeder of Murderous Crustaceans) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just can't get enough of Tom Holt! This really is comic fantasy at its best! It's wacky, silly, doesn't make any sense most of the time but I just love it:)

[Mark Webb · Rating 4 out of 5]

May Contain Traces of Magic by Tom Holt tells the story of Chris Popham, travelling salesman for JW Wells & Co, purveyors of slightly dodgy magical products. He has been warned to never engage in conversation with his SatNav system, powered as it is by the soul of a extra-dimensional denizen doing hard time for unspecified crimes.

He talks to his SatNav. This tells you most of what you need to know about Chris Popham.

When Chris comes across the decapitated remains of one of his customers, clearly the subject of a demon attack, things start spiralling out of control.

May Contain Traces of Magic is set in the same world as some of Holt's earlier novels based around the magic firm of J. W. Wells & Co (e.g. The Portable Door). Telling the story from the point of view of someone on the very periphery of the operation (Chris Popham, as a salesman, has no magic powers himself, he just sells the products) gives a different view of the world which I found interesting. Having said that, the novel is entirely self contained - you don't have to have read any of the other books in the series to enjoy this one.

I find most of Holt's novels are very amusing - not many laugh out loud moments, but clever, witty writing that is expressed very clearly. May Contain Traces of Magic is no exception, with the protagonist's bumbling attempts to work out what is going on well portrayed throughout the book.

For all that the book is funny, it is not a light read. The plot is quite complicated, and keeping track of exactly who is doing what to whom at any given time is difficult. This complexity grows throughout the novel, with revelations that make you have to rethink the plot so far. I don't mind the complexity, but you do have to stay focused.

The characters are well realised and developed considering the comedic nature of the novel. The novel is told almost exclusively from the point of view of the protagonist, so we only see the other characters through his eyes but there was a degree of sophistication in how facets of the secondary characters were revealed.

A complex, interesting read with lots of humour. Highly recommended.

I also reviewed this book on my website.

[Isabel (kittiwake) · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Bloody Hell, Jill,' Chris growled. 'You make it sound like birdwatching.'
She laughed. 'Some of them are bit like that,' she sort-of-whispered back, 'they've got copies of the Observer Book of British Demons that they carry with them wherever they go, and whenever they come across a grade or subspecies they haven't seen before, they tick them off the list and boast about it for days in the canteen. All a bit sad, really, but I guess it's their way of keeping motivated. At least they don't have the dead ones stuffed and mounted any more, like they used to when I joined the department.'

There is a link to "The Portable Door" and its sequels, as the protagonist of this book works for J. Wellington Wells, but Chris is a salesman who spends his time driving round the West Midlands selling magical goods such as dried water and portable folding parking to shopkeepers, and sees himself as being on the periphery of the magical world, although his girlfriend Karen works as a scryer and their old school-friend Jill is a senior member of staff in the government's demon control department.

Although Chris resents his boss asking him to take a work placement student called Angela with him on his rounds, he isn't expecting to come across a demon killing on Angela's first day. From then on things go from bad to worse, since as well as being targeted by demons, Chris is falling under the spell of his magical SatNav, which could have fatal results if he isn't careful.

I liked this almost as much as "The Portable Door", with only the rushed ending letting it down slightly.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tom Holt is one of the names that show up regularly on "If you like Terry Pratchett you'll like..." lists. May Contain Traces of Magic is the first Tom Holt book I've read. It was enjoyable but at times needlessly complex. It felt like it was building up to a huge climax and unfortunately it fell flat. I'm actually still a bit hazy on some of it.
I enjoyed the style of writing where the humour is concerned. The thought processes of the protagonist were really quite amusing at times. But at the same time I got really bored with the numerous moments where he was trying to make sense of his situation. These moments I suppose were meant to bridge the gaps in the plot and to help the reader catch up. I still felt totally confused at times. The switching back and forward between dimensions and time lines can make it hard to follow. And in the end I'm still left feeling a bit bewildered.
I'm going to try some more of Tom Holt's work, mainly because I have a couple on my shelf but also because I did enjoy this book regardless of the minor issues I had with the plot and I'm hoping that I will enjoy another Tom Holt book.

Question: What actually was the plastic bag demon that ate the biscuits and what was it's relevance? If anyone could answer I'd be much obliged.

[Koen Crolla · Rating 4 out of 5]

The problem with Tom Holt's books since more or less The Portable Door (or possibly just his J. W. Wells & Co. books, which is almost but not entirely the same thing) is that they all have essentially the same protagonist: the slightly useless, insecure loser who pines after The Woman in his life, who he either wins over or realises was one of the villains all along. This means that even though I enjoyed the four or five of those books that I read, I really couldn't tell you what happened in which one even just a few days after I finished them.
May Contain Traces of Magic is one of these. It has a more convoluted plot than the others (one which I'm not convinced Holt had worked out in advance, for that matter), but the same basic archetypes are all there. It's definitely an enjoyable book, if you're into these, but don't ask me to explain what happens in it tomorrow.

[Henrik Andersson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yet another Tom Holt book set in the JWW universe, and honestly, it's getting old. Yet another antagonist with troublesome relations with the opposite sex, a hapless chap who's always gotten the wrong end of the stick, but turns out to have been involved with big, magical mysteries all along, and in the end he Grows As A Person and takes care of business in a most uncharacteristic manner.

The story is much too convoluted, and by the end I found myself not even caring about who sent the hummingbirds, which demon was which and where, or even how it would all turn out.

Definitely the least of the Tom Holt books I've read, but still somewhat entertaining at times. Tom? Drop the JWW stuff, think of something new. I know you can.

[Dark-Draco · Rating 5 out of 5]

The one thing about Tom Holt, is you tend to know what you're going to get. It will be wacky and silly, but very clever, funny and witty, yet the characters can make you cry, and ultimately, a bloody good read.

This was no exception, and I devoured the book in one very lazy, dreary, Saturday, which made me feel a lot better. The story is a bit complicated and I did get lost in places - there's a magic products salesman, demons, possessed SatNavs and powdered water. There's an immortal Norse God living above his little shop, a toilet that doubles as a time travelling wormhole, and digestive biscuits baited with human guilt. It's a lot to get your head round, but it makes for a good read.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another book in the magical world of JW Wells & Co, and while the connection is only secondhand (the main character, for example, sells products developed by JWW through another retail outfit), it helps fill the void that was created when the Paul Carpenter story line was killed off. Perhaps, though, Mr. Holt could find some new initials to use? This time it was CP instead of PC as the main character...

All the loose ends are cleaned up at the end, and most of the characters are given closure so that their involvement in a sequel is very unlikely.

[Miki Jacobs · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hadn't previously read anything by Tom Holt and only bought this as it was mentioned in another book I'd read.
I absolutely loved it and couldn't put it down. I normally prefer a good thriller, but occasionally stray to other genres to cleanse my palate as such. I've previously read Robert Ranking and Jasper Fforde so the type of book wasn't unfamiliar, and if you like their books you will love this.
There are magic shops, powdered water, portable parking spaces and demons galore. At one point I wasn't sure who was good and who was evil, but it was very enjoyable.

[Erik Dewey · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a while to get into this book, but once I did I found myself wanting to see how it ended. The world in the book is a bit weird and I still don't quite understand how it all functions but given that is how the main character sees it, I can accept.

When I picked it up, I didn't realize this was book 6 in a series and honestly I don't feel that there was anything that happened in the earlier series that I needed to know. Overall a quirky and fun book with some interesting plot turns.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Science fiction writer, Tom Holt, who also writes as K.J. Parker, writes with a bit of humor. That is a style of writing I always enjoy, no matter the genre. I enjoyed the plot of this novel, but it got a bit confusing towards the end, and went on a bit long, for my taste.

[Peter Lange · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really really good book. Even though I was quite confused at some points the book managed to fill all the plot holes before I decided to stop reading because of feeling stupid ^^

[Damian Knight · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun book, made me smile

[Adam Sweeny · Rating 4 out of 5]

It weird to follow a series that doesn't have "main characters", and even the organization that they work with / for goes away over time, but this was one of the more enjoyable arcs.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable storyline and a good read. Not what you'd call gripping though

[Teri · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the better books in the series.

[Alison Gibson · Rating 5 out of 5]

May contain traces of magic

Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we read Tom Holt. Tangled and crazy, and so much fun!

[Mrs S E White · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a reasonable read, it was okay, not one of his best

[Dinah D · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think Holt put a lot more book around the story than it really needed.

[Mr I · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's not so much that the plot contains the occasional twist. It's more that the plot is a corkscrew. Keep up!

[Kate Eakins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Looks like I've found myself another awesome author