Review: The Shadow Commission

The Shadow Commission by David Mack
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I am too ashamed to tell you how little I read before I decided I couldn't read any more of this book.

First, and in my defence, this is book three in a series, and not really the start of a spin-off series as NetGalley led me to believe. Consequently, the narrative bounced between (I kid you not) monks in Nepal, four elderly oligarchs plotting in London, two magicians running a magic school in Greece, talk of Nazi magicians and some sort of FBI style magical agent in the US. There's a supernatural murder and an rumour of an attempted assassination of President Kennedy. I'm sure if I had read the two preceding books some of this would have made sense or at least I might have recognised some of the characters.

Second, mixing recent history with magic and a murder mystery plot seemed like at least one element too many.

Finally, I found the writing style to be laboured, the Sam Spade style of speaking, the downloading of all the backstory which is just lobbed at the reader in indigestible dollops. I don't care about what musician's music is playing in the background, or what flavour icing someone is putting on the cake, or minute details of the inner workings of a character's mind.

I must have started and given up on this book six or seven times and given up after a few pages. Eventually I decided it just wasn't for me.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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