This is one of my all-time favorite series by a fantastic author! A lyric prose-poem that is a love song to London and magic! The word-paintings of London in this first book of the Midnight Mayor series are breathtaking and the way in which Matthew Swift uses the contemporary magic of cities in general –London, in particular–makes us realize how magic is all around us if only we open our eyes to see it, even in the subways! (In an interview, Kate Griffin said that scene in the subway was probably her favorite in the book! It was a good thing I had just passed that scene when I found her interview!) I urge you to add Madness of Angels and the other Midnight Mayor books to your bedside table! 

As the story opens, Matthew Swift finds himself breathing once again, lying in bed in his London home. Except that it’s no longer his bed, or his home. And the last time this sorcerer was seen alive, an unknown assailant had gouged a hole so deep in his chest that his death was irrefutable…despite his body never being found. Matthew realizes that he is not entirely himself when he glimpses his reflection in a mirror and his eyes (which had been brown) are now the “pale, brilliant albino blue of the cloudless winter sky, and I was no longer the only creature that watched from behind their lens.”

Matthew (and the creatures that are also looking through those albino blue eyes of his) goes on to search for his killer and stop the killer and his dark minions, especially the shadow-entity Matthew comes to refer to as Hunger as the being is the killer’s hunger for power and dominion externalized. As Matthew finds each of his killer’s assistants and strikes them down in a variety of impressive ways, we meet the Bag Lady and the Beggar King and the other archetypes that populate the shadows of London. A Madness of Angels and the Midnight Mayor series are exquisite!