This review was first published in and is reposted with permission from Shelf Awareness.
​The search for a missing girl leads a magical thief to a mysterious doomsday cult and the secret of his wife's death in Catchpenny, an intricate, gritty urban fantasy by Charlie Huston (The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death, The Shotgun Rule).
Sidney Catchpenny is a sly, a thief with the ability to travel through mirrors. He steals curiosities imbued with mojo, fuel for magic, but his reputation and talent have declined due to his increasingly persistent depression. An old friend comes to him for help investigating a teenager whose mother insists she's more than missing, she's "gone." The surprising mojo in the girl's room is strong enough to give Catchpenny a "sudden rush of positivity"--and it proves the girl has magical connections beyond what he'd been told. As more of his old acquaintances reenter his life and seem to have a stake in finding the girl, Catchpenny must untangle what a massive multiplayer online game, suicide cults, and a killer with his own face all have to do with the missing girl.
Catchpenny comes to grips with his wife's death as he traverses a shadowy, magical Los Angeles underworld full of rival power players. Huston enmeshes readers so deeply into Catchpenny's perspective that his flaws are only gradually revealed through multiple confrontations with people from his past. Huston likewise slowly metes out details about magic, giving readers what they need to know but never overwhelming the novel's intrigue or the atmosphere. Fans of Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim series should check this one out. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library

This review was first published in and is reposted with permission from Shelf Awareness.
The birth story of a surprisingly enduring musical action comedy provides the framework for a detailed and insightful examination of John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd's partnership in The Blues Brothers by Daniel de Visé (King of the Blues; I Forgot to Remember, with Su Meck).
Aykroyd's and Belushi's Blues Brothers personas could be the basis for several books. Born out of Aykroyd's love for classic blues music and his desire to share it with Belushi and the world, the act appropriated the work of Black musicians yet, at the same time, artists such as James Brown credited it as helping to revive their careers. De Visé examines the phenomenon both critically and lovingly. Though hindsight tells us the film became a classic despite its initial poor reception, the detail with which de Visé conveys budget issues and difficulties caused by Belushi's substance abuse creates real suspense.
The heart of the story is the friendship between the two stars. It's clear that de Visé finds Belushi the more interesting subject and seems more inclined to think of Aykroyd as his friend and caretaker. In a book that often references Aykroyd's depth of knowledge about obscure subjects such as military hardware, and how the iconic Blues Brothers sunglasses "freed Dan from the awkward business of eye contact," it seems odd to mention only his childhood diagnosis of Tourette's and not his public acknowledgment of other neurodivergent traits. Still, fans who admire one or both of these comedians will find plenty of fascinating material in this fresh examination of success and tragedy. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library