Capital Murder (Arcane Casebook #7) ★★★★☆

~ Bookstooge
Capital Murder

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Capital Murder
Series: Arcane Casebook #7
Author: Dan Willis
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 336
Words: 110K





Synopsis:

Alex Lockerby gets snagged into going to Washington, DC (the capital of the United States of America) with one of the Sorcerous Six. Of course, he immediately gets sucked into multiple investigations, all of which are “Top Priority” by the clients.

Then it turns out his girlfriend Sorsha is involved in one of the cases and the papers are publicly speculating that she can’t solve it without Alex’s help. As a top FBI agent, this doesn’t sit well with her. Placing more strain on an already irregular relationship, Alex and Sorsha have to figure out if they can both have their careers and each other.

The main case ends up involving The Legion, a secret society of Runewrights dedicated to Evil, wanting to abscond with a whole military base’s worth of secret runewright papers. They partially succeed but Alex manages to stop the majority. In doing so, he gets a target on his back from the Legion and the book ends with Sorsha in a coma and an up and coming Legion member preparing to hunt Alex down.

My Thoughts:

Another thoroughly enjoyable entry in the Arcane Casebook series. As convoluted, over the top and larger than life as usual, this hit all the points that continue to intrigue me about this series.

I do hope that Willis can slow down the pace here a bit. Alternate World War II is looming and it’s obvious Runewrights will be largely involved. As I’ve mentioned in previous reviews, I don’t like intensive ramping up of the plot “just because”.

Sorsha and Alex’s relationship hits the skids and while they haven’t broken up and have decided to really make it work, they haven’t addressed the issues that are causing the problems in the first place. I’m concerned that Willis will treat it shallowly. That’s not necessarily a bad thing since the series is pretty light but you can’t treat a heavy subject lightly without a disconcerting dichotomy in your literary tone.

Willis is really churning these out and I’m pretty happy at the pace he’s setting. Book 8 is already scheduled for April of ’22. Yee-haw!

Rating: 4 out of 5.

ps,
the bleeping editor has changed YET AGAIN. I hate wordpress for their continual messing about under the skirts. Having to re-learn the damnable block editor every couple of weeks or months, it’s too much. I need stability in my blogging platform.

28 thoughts on “Capital Murder (Arcane Casebook #7) ★★★★☆”

  2. I didn’t notice WP changed again. Which means I have something horrible to look forward to. I still haven’t switched to block editor. If I had to I think I’d just pull the plug on things and go on more long walks in the morning.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. So, things went back to normal. I’ve seen this before. The “team” messes around under the hood and changes little things, then changes it back because they were experimenting with something else altogether. It makes for a very unsettling experience.

      Don’t switch. If I had realized that the classic editor was still going to be around, I’d have stayed with it until they discontinued it. But they keep pushing that back and now its pretty indefinite. I heard ’22 mooted about? But who knows.

      I do enough walking at work, so I’d have to find some other outlet (besides reading, as that would simply lead to more writing, ha!)

      Like

      Reply

    1. Yeah, I feel like WP abandoned the casual writer to get the couple more paying customers who want to create websites.
      I’m guessing a beancounter realized that 10 paying customers were worth more than 1000 nonpaying ones. However, it really reduces their presence online because people ARE going to go else where 😦

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

        1. Lots of people like it. People who want websites and like to make things look “just so”.
          But not many writers like it.

          If you check out the wp.org plugins, the “classic editor” plugin is one of the most popularly installed. If going independent wasn’t such a hassle and a lot of work to stay secure, I’d seriously think about it.

          And the “why” is because of money. 1 person who pays is probably worth thousands of the freebie sites, in terms of dollars and cents. Or pounds and shillings in your case….

          Liked by 1 person

          Reply

            1. See, I think we’re working at cross purposes here. I’m trying to PREVENT blue bottom waving while kilts only ENCOURAGE that kind of behavior.

              Alex Lockerby is not a blue bottom waver….

              Liked by 1 person

              Reply

    1. I don’t think these can get the 5star rating unless they become deeper and worth re-reading. I pretty much save 5 stars for books that are as good the second time around.
      Unless it is REALLY special and I don’t know what it would take for that now…

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  8. Pingback: June ’21 Roundup & Ramblings – Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road
  9. Pingback: June ’21 Roundup & Ramblings – Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road

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