A snow-covered park in London and DC Lacey Flint, still scarred from the events of Now You See Me, responds to an emergency call. She finds five masked men standing around what appears to be a bonfire, but is in fact a burning man. Local white youths have been terrorising a Muslim doctor and this seems to be the conclusion of that campaign. But Lacey feels that something is wrong, especially when a mysterious woman, clad from head to toe in black begins to haunt the park…

Another quick review for a quick read – short story or novella? Sometimes I wish the Kindle had a word-count facility, but as I’m pretty sure there isn’t a firm definition of the difference between the two terms, it probably wouldn’t help. But whatever it is, this is going to be a tricky one to review…

First of all, this is set between Now You See Me and Dead Scared. It doesn’t say that on Amazon, so if you’re a stickler for reading things in order, now you know.

Obviously I can’t say much for fear of spoilers – very hard to do for a novella, but there is plenty going on with a couple of good reveals. After the first, the second is pretty guessable. There are hints to what has happened, so it plays pretty fair. As with the novels, it’s a gripping read – oh, there are no real spoilers for the first book, by the way, but I’d read that first anyway. There are vague hints of the conclusion, and while this is a good read, the first book is much better.

A quick aside – given the number of times that Lacey Flint “bends” the rules, both here and in the books, how does she still have a job?

On a more serious note, I had trouble with the motivation for the events. Trying to be vague here. I know next to nothing about the cultural issues raised in this story but the actions taken seem to me to be far too extreme to be believable. I’m not sure if I want to find out that things were exaggerated for dramatic effect, which seems to be rather crass, or whether this is based on a real event, which would depress me further. If you can avoid thinking about these issues, or indeed, if you want to, then this story is worth a look. But the more I think about it, the more I think that I’m rather uncomfortable with it. Do let me know what you think.