"Among Thieves" by Douglas Hulick

The saying goes, don't judge a book by it's cover. However, we all do so. That's why cover art is such a big deal in the publishing world. This is especially true for a new author. Good cover art gets your book noticed.

Good writing gets your book read, reviewed, blogged about, tweeted, shared on Facebook, etc. (Of course, really bad writing does as well, but it's the good I'm talking about in this case, so the statement stands.)

The cover art got me to pick up Among Theives. As did the title. The blurb from Brent Weeks on the front put this book in my "buying now" stack. I'm really glad I picked it up.

For a first novel, the setting is fantastic. It's definitely urban fantasy, but not your typical modern day urban. Instead of vampires and werewolves, we find ourselves surrounded by Noses (people within a criminal organization that "sniff" out information) and Mouths (people within a criminal organization that use Glimmer (magic)).

Our anti-hero is Drothe, who is also our story-teller. He's a Nose for an Upright Man (Mob Boss) named Nicco. The story really begins as Drothe heads into Ten Ways to determine what is happening. And, he finds more than he ever thought, and gets himself in the middle of a War. Which I made sound much less complex than it really is. This story has more twists and turns than a really good roller coaster.

I'll admit, this was a book I did put down during "the middle" but once I picked it back up, I had trouble trying to put it back down again. It kept me up way past my bed time more than once. I'd say, push through, there is some "info dumping" of character/world info that you probably need setting up a location for a series of books. (This is "A Tale of the Kin" so I'm assuming there may be more than one.)  As a first novel, I think it does just fine. It's not epic in length by any means, so forge on to the action and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

I highly recommend this book to any who like the more down and dirty types such as The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch or The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks. There is no good or evil, right or wrong here. There is intrigue, fighting, betrayl and everything you'd want out of a good mobster movie, with a little bit of magic thrown in.