D.B. Jackson has created an astonishing world in Thieftaker, the first in a series of novels centered on Ethan Kaille, a disgraced sailor and former prisoner now working as a thieftaker--hunting down stolen merchandise for citizens of colonial Boston. But Ethan is also a conjurer, a fact he tries to hide because 1765 is the wrong time to admit to using dark magic in New England.
Ethan is mostly content with his lot--grateful to have been released from slave labor in Barbados and enjoying a comfortable relationship with a local tavern owner. He's intrigued, though, by a request to find a brooch for wealthy merchant Abner Berson. Berson's daughter Jennifer was killed in the confusion when revolutionary radicals attacked the home of leading British officials; Berson wants Ethan to find her missing brooch, while quietly looking into her death. When he agrees, Ethan suddenly finds himself in danger on all fronts--from Sephira Price, the most powerful thieftaker in Boston; from those who fear his magic; and from a mysterious conjurer he suspects is Jennifer's murderer.
The beginning of Thieftaker is a little slow, as Jackson fleshes out Ethan's complicated past and explains how the conjuring works, but it quickly picks up to a pace that's almost dizzying as Ethan crisscrosses Boston, repeatedly being attacked by the various people out to get him. The clever blend of history, mystery and fantasy makes this a book not to be missed. --Jessica Howard, blogger at Quirky Bookworm