Shadow Talker: The Magic Detective School Book 1 is the newest novel by Sergei Katz, the author of The Changing World: Origin. I’d enjoyed reading The Changing World, and let’s be honest, pretty much any book with a magic-school theme gets me instantly interested in reading it.
In the magical world, young people uncover their profession after a series of game challenges, and young James is delighted to be assigned to become a detective. His special ability, which is communicating with shadows and gaining information that way, and his observant, analytical personality make him a perfect detective candidate , as the rest of the novel will show. Shadow Talker is is almost a coming-of-age story, because we see James go from basically a student, first discovering his profession and just trying to find the detective school, to becoming a fully-fledged detective and really coming into his own.
The magical detective school is just what it says — solving crimes and mysteries in a magical world. There’s a Sherlock Holmes level of noticing detail throughout, as the aspiring detectives ask asked to solve puzzles. The school itself is alive and sentient, creating tailored challenges and helping the students to become their best, even through some surprising ways.
I’d enjoyed the enchanted bird familiar in The Changing World, and I was happy to meet James’s animal sidekick. The fennec fox is the sign of the magic detective school, and playful fennec foxes guide the students like personal familiars, directly helping and dropping hints about their new environment at magical detective school. James’ fox is called Key, perhaps because of his opening abilities or maybe his adorable hinting.
Later, James encounters Panther, or rather, one of his friends reveals a new side. I don’t want to reveal too much of the plot, since discovering the school and the assignments along with James is a lot of the fun. But I’ll say that I enjoyed James building his group and seeing how their personalities and skills blended.
From the Games in the very beginning to the challenges of the detective school, James must solve puzzles, to the best of his abilities. I liked when he teamed up with his friends, Phoenix and Panther, because they combined their abilities.
The end of the book sets up a very clear lead for a series about magical detection in this detailed world.