Seanan McGuire, Rosemary and Rue (DAW, 2009)

I felt the curse catch hold, sinking thorny talons into my skin as the bittersweet smell of dying roses flooded my nose and mouth. I dropped my coffee cup and staggered backwards retching, clapping a hand over my mouth as I tried not to throw up. Promises bind our kind as surely as iron chains or ropes of human hair, and Evening had bound me with the old forms, the ones anyone with a trace of fae blood can use. No one uses the old bindings anymore, not unless things are so bleak that even our missing King and his Hunt couldn't mend them. They’re too strong, and too deadly.

The fae never swear by anything we don't believe in. We don't ask for thanks and we don't offer them; no promises, no regrets, no chains. No lies. If Evening said failure would kill me, it would kill me. I just hoped she had a good reason, or I was going to have to kill her myself. -- Rosemary and Rue

Rosemary and Rue is the first in the October Daye urban fantasy series by new author Seanan McGuire. October "Toby" Daye is a changeling, half-mortal and half fae, a private detective sidelined for fourteen years by a vicious curse and only recently recovered and returned to her home in San Francisco. Toby has been avoiding her old connections in both the mortal world and the world of Faerie, but when an old friend is murdered and she's placed under a binding spell that forces her to investigate the murder and avenge the death, she is unwillingly forced back into the intricate web of politics and magic that twines through the world of the fae.

After the brief prologue explaining the curse and Toby's missing years, Rosemary and Rue plunges right into the action of the story, and continues at a brisk pace throughout the novel. Part detective noir and part fairy tale, McGuire strikes just the right balance between hard boiled mystery and exploration of a new magical world. Her worldbuilding here is excellent, with beautifully detailed descriptions of places and creatures that allow the reader to visualize not only magical beings and settings but how they fit into the real world setting of McGuire's beloved San Francisco. Occasionally the author is forced to indulge in a few excessive infodumps, but as she's packing a lot of new fantasy information into this setting, most readers will forgive the necessity. Because McGuire isn't just using the standard Sidhe, Elves, Dwarves, etc. that tend to populate most run of the mill urban fantasies these days. She's done her research and she's combined entire pantheons of fae creatures in whole new ways. Kitsune, undines, kelpies, coblynaus . . . folklore junkies will delight in this book as they recognize beings and myths which generally get short shrift in urban fantasy and which are brought to real and delightful life as personalities and characters here. Yet characters, though mythological and fae, aren't simply constructs for the imagination; they have hearts and souls and personalities. I suspect that many a reader will fall in love with Tybalt, King of Cats, and find themselves longing for the peace of Lily the Undine's Japanese Tea Garden refuge. In addition she creates creatures of her own which are sure to become beloved in their own right -- I want a rose goblin to keep my own cats company.

McGuire also does an excellent job of distracting the reader from the mystery. I'm one of those people who tend to know whodunnit from the beginning, so I'm always delighted when a mystery author can throw me off without using ridiculous ploys to hide the identity of the killer. Here there are plenty of possible killers and motives, and it's actually suspenseful riding along with Toby as she tries to solve the mystery.

Toby Daye is one of the best female fantasy characters to come along in a long time; she's tough, confident, and heroic but she's capable of introspection, and unlike the Mary Sues of the literary world, she's capable of failure. She's far from perfect, but she's excellent. McGuire employs an engaging writing style that pulls the reader into Toby's head and into the world she's building immediately and directly -- this is a character people can relate to. She's witty and sarcastic, but in pretty much the same way any of us might be in the same situations. She's snarky, she's blunt, and she's very real. This style carries over into the other characters as well -- nobody speaks in High Fantasy. There are no "thees and thous" to be found here, except perhaps in the court of the (very insane) Queen of the Mists. These are characters that we as readers can understand. At times this novel put me nostalgically in mind of Bordertown -- though it is no way derivative of that hallowed series, it is perhaps the first time I've felt the same affection for the melding of magic and reality that I've felt for that melding outside of Bordertown or Newford, and that's a hell of an accomplishment.

Like Toby, Rosemary and Rue isn't perfect, but it's excellent.

For a first novel, this is frighteningly good. The second and third novels in this series (A Local Habitation and An Artifical Night) are due to be released in 2010, with more rumored after that, and McGuire has other series in the works. There's no doubt that this author is going to be Big, and deservedly so. Pick this book up, and soon. I predict that this is the next big urban fantasy series coming down the pike, and I can't wait to see more.

[Mia Nutick]

Seanan McGuire has a Web site here