In the third Alex Verus novel, apprentices are going missing, and naturally Alex finds himself in the middle of the situation. He has a greater vested interest in the situation since he now formally has an apprentice in Luna. As usual, there are multiple layers to this story with various potential adversaries and good twists and turns along the way.
The writing in this novel is quite good. Benedict Jacka is a skilled writer who can weave together interesting stories that are fun to read. I would say this novel is not quite as compelling as the first two books in the series. The story itself that was a fun read but a notch below the other two novels I have read from Jacka. I do enjoy how Alex Verus uses his divination skills to his advantage to solve most of his problems. As far as magical abilities go, this is a pretty cool to one to have.
The ending was a little disappointing. It just didn’t seem to have the type of finality where antagonist is killed and protagonist can move on. It was more of a negotiated ending. So, it wasn’t the most satisfying of endings, but overall this was a good read that won’t disappoint readers of the series.
