The Magician's Daughter

December 15, 2014
In the opening chapter of this solid first in a new mystery series from Janeway (An Accidental Marriage), 24-year-old magician Valentine Hill is just finishing up a show outside San Francisco’s Golden Pirate Casino when a man in the crowd steals her donation hat. Meanwhile, another audience member approaches Valentine with information about her con-artist mother, Elizabeth Hill (aka Beth Hull), whom she hasn’t seen in nine years. After calling it a night and returning to her apartment, Valentine finds that it’s been ransacked and her life savings stolen, apparently by a spurned suitor. The second chapter is equally crammed with unlikely events: Valentine locates her mother’s apartment, gets beat up, evades a scam by someone posing as an FBI agent, and more. Some readers may grow weary of the countless plot twists, but others will keep turning the pages to find out what happens next to this determined heroine.

December 15, 2014
A magician struggling to understand her own past gets drawn into a dangerous plot involving her long-absent mother. In the first installment of a promised trilogy, Janeway introduces Valentine Hill, a prickly illusionist with major mother issues. Forced to accompany her mother, Elizabeth, on a parade of cons throughout her childhood, Valentine doesn't even know her own birthday, let alone anything about her absent father. A stickler for rules-she never lies, swears or hits people-Valentine performs alongside Eddie the Wiz as "The Great Valentina" in Las Vegas until she's approached by a wealthy California man promising information about her mother, whom she hasn't seen in nine years. Packing up her literal bag of tricks, Valentine heads to San Francisco, where she's soon attacked by a goon named Dwayne and detained by the SFPD and the FBI, both of whom are on Elizabeth's trail. Despite seemingly genuine efforts by the people she encounters to lend a helping hand, Valentine constantly rebuffs all kind advances, underscoring not that she's determined to make her own way in life but that she's simply an unpleasant person. A passing friendship with FBI Agent Eugenia "Phil" Philips provides a glimmer of hope on the social front, but it's soon snuffed out. Janeway clutters the dialogue with excessive exposition and clunky phrasing, making even the simplest interactions come off as overwritten. The most engaging elements of the plot center on Valentine's actual magic shows, but these are few and far between; no amount of rabbits appearing out of top hats can salvage this exhausting tale.

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January 1, 2015

Magician Valentine Hill knows many tricks, but the real illusion is her own self: thanks to her con artist mother, Valentine doesn't know her actual age, birthplace, or father. She doesn't legally exist. Following a tip to California, Valentine reunites with her mom but is sure she is up to her old tricks, no matter what the FBI says. In this series debut, the magician must sort illusion from reality after an agent's death. Janeway is also the author of Odds of Dying: An Allison Weaver Mystery.

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