In Lee Kellyâs âelectricâ (Publishers Weekly) fantasy novel, two young sorcerers experiment with magic and mobsters in 1920s Prohibition when a new elixir is created that turns their lives upside down.
Washington, DC, 1926. Sorcery opponents have succeeded in passing the 18th Amendment, but the Prohibition of magic has only invigorated the cityâs underworld. Smuggling rings carry magic contraband in from the coast. Sorcerers cast illusions to aid mobstersâ crime sprees. Gangs have even established âmagic havens,â secret venues where the public can lose themselves in immersive magic and consume a mind-bending, highly addictive elixir known as âthe sorcererâs shine.â
Joan Kendrick, a young sorcerer from the backwoods of Norfolk County, accepts an offer to work for DCâs most notorious crime syndicate, The Shaw Gang, when her familyâs home is repossessed. Alex Danfrey, first-year Federal Prohibition Unit trainee with a complicated past and talents of his own, becomes tapped to go undercover and infiltrate the Shaws. When Joan meets Alex at the Shawsâ magic haven, she discovers a confidante in her fellow partner and he begins to fall under her spell. But when a new breed of the addictive sorcererâs shine is created within the walls of the magic haven, Joan and Alex are forced to question their allegiances as they become pitted against one another in a dangerous, heady game of cat-and-mouse.