Stiletto by Daniel O'Malley

 

This is another spies-in-a-magic-world novel, a sequel to *The Rook.* It's laden with startlingly funny turns of phrase, and the characters in it are well-differentiated and the story is well-structured. There are some moments that play like either wild absurdism or hard realism, could go either way. It's clear there's at least one more novel in this arc, and I know there's a prequel. I probably wouldn't pick those up on my own, but there's a pretty good chance someone else in my house will, and I'll probably read them, then. The first novel was pretty self-contained, but this one is much more clearly setting up a sequel, which seems to be a thing that happens: The first novel is a complete story, then the author has to keep setting up the next book. That's most of why I don't mostly bother with anything other than First Books, but the writing here is charming and entertaining enough that I'll keep biting.