Rough Magic

by Pat MacEwen

When Worlds Collide Twenty years ago, the modern world collided with the world of Faerie, leaving behind its denizens in a world of cold iron. Unable to work in the modern world of steel, those of the Fallen have been forced into welfare, prostitution, or thievery. Once the proud Queen of Air and Light, Sathyllien works with the Los Angeles police department to solve the murders of elves and human prostitutes. The clues lead to a 5-year-old, cold-case murder—that of her daughter. But can she find the killer before a race war starts?

294 pages, Paperback

First published July 17, 2012

About the author

Pat MacEwen is an anthropologist (translation: bone freak) with an abiding interest in genocide and war crimes, and a sordid past in civilian forensics. She has worked on war crimes investigations for the U.N. and was a forensic tech for a California police department for several years before that. She has also worked in aerospace, and holds a degree in marine biology, having been a research assistant at the Institute of Marine & Coastal Studies at USC for 6 years. She writes science fiction, fantasy, horror, and mystery, and likes to use her checkered career as background for same. Adores cats, kids, risqué humor, and Guinness.

Reviews

[Katharine Kimbriel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Grimdark Urban Fantasy.

You think you've been reading the hard stuff? Only if you've been reading Pat MacEwen's work. MacEwen is a physical anthropologist who knows way too much about the horrors of genocide. So what if that genocide is visited upon elves?

You are tossed into the nightmare that is Sall's mind, the last high elf, trapped with fading magic in an alternate world--ours--watching humans age and die like autumn leaves and living daily with the horror of her half-elvish daughter's murder. You think this is going to be a glorious, kick tail police procedural urban fantasy with scary, well done magic...and then you discover that it's also about alien cultures colliding, about why humans will forever fear elves, and elves humans, about miscommunication, about the horrors humans do to each other and to themselves, about....

It's more about real life and the real world and the poison humans spread, and the hope they also can infect things with, than you expected to get. I didn't think there could be any hope left at the end of this book, but there was a sharp right turn at the last, and surprise--we get hope and a chance.

If you want to feel the grit under your feet as you run from things that go bump in the night? Read Rough Magic. Looking forward to the next one!

[Stacey Dunn · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story was very good. I lived in the area described in the book and the characters and politics all rang true. I really felt for the main character and her dislocation, and I was impressed at how consistent the fictional science was within the book. It was, altogether, a great read.