Black fantasy

Not for you, the golden glades of Lothlórien, where the elf-queen rules amid the dream-flowers? Looking for something grittier? Try White Cat and its sequel, Red Glove, by Holly Black, for fantasy that owes a lot more to the shadowy world of The Sopranos than to Tolkien.

Cassel Sharpe is a smart teenager, trying to stay out of trouble and fit in at his expensive boarding school. But that's not easy for a kid from a family of con artists, killers, and curse-workers.

You see, magic is illegal but available through organized crime channels; if you want curse-work done, you need to make a bargain with the mafia. Cassel is inextricably connected to the mob by blood, even though he doesn't do work himself. He'd like to avoid the business, in spite of his complicated loyalties to his family.

Most fantasy novels present magic as basically neutral - a tool that can be used either for good or evil. But in these novels, it's hard not to see the inherently malignant implications of curse-work: you can tamper with someone's memories; or make them feel emotions that they otherwise wouldn't; or, you know, murder them, in either straightforward or devious ways. This seems to be dark power. Maybe people who can't do it are right to be afraid of those who can.

The more we learn about Cassel, the more we suspect that someone has been working on him. He's in up to his neck - he just doesn't know it.

White Cat and Red Glove present a malevolent and dangerous world, in which no one is innocent and no one can be trusted. I'm excited to grab the third book, Black Heart, but unfortunately I'll have to wait - it's not out until April.