Audiobook Review – The Thieftaker (Thieftaker Chronicles, Book 1) by D.B. Jackson (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Length: 336 pages
Publisher: Audible Studios
Release Date: December 27, 2012
ASIN: B00ATFN1R0
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Thieftaker Chronicles
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 3/5 stars

“Boston, 1765: In D.B. Jackson’s Thieftaker, revolution is brewing as the British Crown imposes increasingly onerous taxes on the colonies, and intrigue swirls around firebrands like Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty. But for Ethan Kaille, a thieftaker who makes his living by conjuring spells that help him solve crimes, politics is for others…until he is asked to recover a necklace worn by the murdered daughter of a prominent family.

Suddenly, he faces another conjurer of enormous power, someone unknown, who is part of a conspiracy that reaches to the highest levels of power in the turbulent colony. His adversary has already killed—and not for his own gain, but in the service of his powerful masters, people for whom others are mere pawns in a game of politics and power. Ethan is in way over his head, and he knows it. Already a man with a dark past, he can ill afford to fail, lest his livelihood be forfeit. But he can’t stop now, for his magic has marked him, so he must fight the odds, even though he seems hopelessly overmatched, his doom seeming certain at the spectral hands of one he cannot even see.”

I listened to this on audiobook and the narrator did an awesome job. He really distinguished between character voices and conveyed emotion well.

I ended up finding this book kind of boring. I almost stopped listening to it a couple times. I think the problem was that the plot got repetitious. Basically Ethan finds a clue, gets the stuffing beat out of him, heals, finds a clue, gets the stuffing beat out of him….repeat over and over. At times Ethan reminds a bit of a 1700’s Harry Dresden…but nearly as exciting.

The writing style is decent with some good description. The pace is a bit deliberate and slow and the plot repetitious.

The characters were okay. Ethan comes across as stoically noble to the point where he does some pretty stupid things; while I admired his determination I thought he should have been smarter about things.

There is magic and conjuring in the story, but the story is more of a straight-up murder mystery than anything. The 1760’s historical America setting is interesting and I enjoyed reading about the issues of this era and how they were reimagined with magic involved.

Overall this was an okay story but kind of boring. I enjoyed the historical setting and the descriptive writing, but thought the plot was repetitive and paced too slowly. The characters were okay but also a bit bland. I guess I would recommend if you are into historical murder mysteries and don’t mind some magic in your stories. Personally I think there are a lot better urban/historical fantasies out there and I won’t be reading any more of this series.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– Mount TBR Reading Challenge
– Flights of Fantasy Reading Challenge
– Audiobook Reading Challenge