License to Ensorcell: Unusual, not without issues

License to Ensorcell by Katharine Kerr

Nola O’Grady is a psychic who works for a government agency that officially doesn’t exist. Her agency is called in when there’s a case involving the forces of Chaos – like the one that Israeli agent Ari Nathan is currently trying to solve for Interpol. Someone is murdering werewolves, and somehow traveling between the scenes of the crimes without being seen by any witnesses. Nola and Ari are thrown together on the case and soon learn that the victims all knew each other and that Nola’s late brother Patrick was murdered by the same culprit.

Katharine Kerr creates a host of interesting characters, starting with Nola’s eccentric (and psychic) Irish Catholic family. The setting is fun; Kerr makes great use of San Francisco landmarks such as the Portals of the Past, a columned doorway that is all that’s left of a house that burned during the 1906 earthquake. Throughout License to Ensorcell, the reader feels like he or she is right there in the city with the characters. The fantasy world-building is also interesting. I love plots that revolve around spaces that are subtly wrong in the way they’re laid out (see also M.L.N. Hanover’s Vicious Grace). It’s easy to believe, when feeling disoriented in such a place, that there is something uncanny going on.

The government aspect and Nola’s family combine to make an urban fantasy that feels simultaneously more bureaucratic and more cozy than most of its peers. Nola’s psychic abilities all have official acronyms, which can be hard to keep track of, but there is a glossary in the back – and truth be told, most of the time you can skim over the acronym and just say to yourself “she’s trying to get a psychic read on someone.” The family aspect is often funny and sometimes touching, as in a subplot involving Nola’s teenage brother Michael trying to discover what powers he has inherited.

The main mystery doesn’t work as well. Kerr overcomplicates her villain. The more he is unveiled, the less he makes sense to me. When I finally learned what his real agenda was, many of his actions seemed illogical. They would jeopardize his agenda, or at least add extra work to it.

In addition, License to Ensorcell takes a while to get off the ground. The early chapters bog down a bit in arguments between Nola and Ari. I can deal with bickering if it’s especially witty, but these arguments just made me cranky right along with the characters.

Kerr’s depiction of Nola’s eating disorder is problematic, too. In reality, the reasons someone develops anorexia are rarely as simple as wanting to be fashionably thin, and recovering from it takes more than having one’s hunky new boyfriend coax one into eating.

Consider giving License to Ensorcell a try if you’re looking for something unusual in urban fantasy. It’s not without issues, but with its interesting cast and world-building, it could be the start of a highly original series.