We Need More Shelves...
  • Home
  • About This Site
    • Site Index
  • My Favorite Book Links
  • Contact Jan
The Inquisitor's Apprentice cover

Review: The Inquisitor’s Apprentice

By Jan 
on July 5, 2012
Print 🖨 PDF 📄 eBook 📱

The Inquisitor's Apprentice
The Inquisitor’s Apprentice by Chris Moriarty;

My rating: 3 of 5 stars;

The Inquisitor’s Apprentice by Chris Moriarty is a colorful YA fantasy set in an alternate New York City circa turn-of-the-20th-century. Magic abounds, although it’s illegal, and when a young Jewish boy, Sacha Kessler, discovers he can see it happening, he is immediately recruited by the police department’s head inquisitor, Maximilian Wolf. Their job is to find and stop others using magic, even though Sacha’s has a personal conflict of interest. His fellow apprentice, Lily Astral, is from one of the wealthiest and most influential families in New York.

I’m not sure children will appreciate the clever word-play and references to history, but the story itself is straightforward, and the characters are well-drawn even if some are stereotypical. The author describes the city wonderfully, with its immigrants and robber barons, tenements and mansions, back alleys and wide avenues.

I did not like the inclusion of the supernatural creature, the “dybbuk,” as a plot device and the ending of the book was very vague. I was definitely looking for something more concrete. That would be confusing to children, in my opinion.

Overall, I enjoyed the story and the writing was first-rate. However, the solution to the mystery was disappointing.

This ebook was provided free of charge for review by NetGalley

View all my reviews

© Jan McClintock of We Need More Shelves

Categories Book Review, Fantasy Tags Goodreads, NetGalley
← Previous Post
Next Post →

Search this site

Categories

2020 Reading Challenge

2020 Reading Challenge
Jan has read 5 books toward her goal of 120 books.
hide
5 of 120 (4%)
view books

Follow this blog

RSS Feed

Currently-reading

Quite Ready To Be Sent Somewhere: The Civil War Letters Of Aldace Freeman Walker
Quite Ready To Be Sent Somewhere: The Civil War Letters Of Aldace Freeman Walker
by Thomas LeDoux
tagged: currently-reading
A Journey Through Texas, Or, A Saddle-trip on the Southwestern Frontier
A Journey Through Texas, Or, A Saddle-trip on the Southwestern Frontier
by Frederick Law Olmsted
tagged: currently-reading
Fingerprints of the Gods: The Quest Continues
Fingerprints of the Gods: The Quest Continues
by Graham Hancock
tagged: currently-reading, audiobook, and history

goodreads.com

Recent Posts:

  • Why This Blog is Waning
  • Fun Gifts for Readers and Book Lovers
  • Review: The First Girl Child
  • Review: The Society of the Sword Trilogy
  • Review: Children of Time
  • Review: The City & The City
  • Review: The Monastery Murders
  • Review: Patient 3

Contact JanContact Jan about this site.

I Love Book Covers

Visit Me

LibThing logo

Goodreads

LibThing Early Reviews

Audible logo

NetGalley Reader badge

FTC Disclosure

I have an affiliate relationship with Amazon.com. Some of the links on this site may go there. If you purchase something using one of those links, I may receive a small compensation. I am never paid to review books and am always brazenly honest (ask my husband). Thank you!

Home | About This Site | My Favorite Book Links | Privacy Policy

2021 - Copyright © Jan McClintock, All Rights Reserved