This book must be read as two books. Mercedes Lackey has written a good book about London in the early 1900 and her heroine Dr. Maya meets all the usual characters expected child pickpockets, prostitutes, battered women, drunks, etc. But she never digs deep enough for us to feel that we really know this London of hers. Then she goes for the magic and fantasy we expect from her and the two just don't mesh. Because she is so busy exploring London her characters are like cardboard cutouts and it leaves you feeling that this book is just a review and surely more must come. But suddenly in the last few pages she becomes the Lackey we all know and love and the story just zips along. Maybe she will take the characters in this book and write another story for them with London as just a background and not ANOTHER story.
