Magic was not a factor in any of the conflicts with tribal Indians until the British intervened during the war of 1812. [loc. 1029]
My end-of-the-year treat to myself. Winter's Gifts is a novella in the Rivers of London world, but set in North America -- specifically Wisconsin -- and featuring FBI agent Kimberley Reynolds, who's appeared or been mentioned in a couple of the Peter Grant novels. Here, we get more of her story: her Christian upbringing and faith, the 'petty' job she started after leaving college, the much more interesting work she does for the FBI's Critical Incident Response Group, and the difficulties of confronting magical beings and phenomena when you're not a magician yourself.
Kimberley is sent to respond to a call from Henderson, a retired FBI agent who lives in Eloise, a small town in northern Wisconsin, and who's called with a coded message that indicates Unusual Circumstances. She arrives to find the town hall levelled by an ice tornado, Henderson's house empty bar signs of a struggle, and Eloise effectively cut off from the world. She also encounters a handsome Native American meteorologist named William Boyd ('not a hobbit'), who explains to her just how freaky the weather is; Sadie Clarkson, a charming Black librarian with a secret and a journal from an 1840s expedition, lost without trace while hunting something magical; and Scott Walker, an ethnographer who may be more than he seems. And then the weird stuff really kicks in.
TThe problem with Aaronovitch's books is that as soon as I read one, I want to reread my favourites. This time I managed not to succumb, apart from the last few chapters of Broken Homes... I enjoyed Winter's Gifts very much indeed, despite its departure from the 'magic-user investigates magical crime' template, and I would like more Kimberley Reynolds: I appreciate her grounded, pragmatic approach, and I'd like to know more about how she reconciles her experience of the magical world with her Christian faith. I'd also like more about the Virginia Gentleman's Company, founded by Thomas Jefferson as one of America's two counterparts to London's Folly (the other was founded by Benjamin Franklin) and their charged interactions with the Native American population. And the Crane from London, who flies everywhere and swaps stories ...
Bonus extra: the longest single Dewey Decimal number, cited by Sadie Clarkson when she's not encouraging local schoolchildren to read A Wizard of Earthsea.
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