Crimes Against Magic

The Hellequin Chronicles, Book 1

By: Steve McHugh

Narrated by: James Langton

Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

How do you keep the people you care about safe from enemies you can’t remember? Ten years ago, Nate Garrett awoke on a cold warehouse floor with no memory of his past and the only clues to his identity were a piece of paper with his name on it and a propensity toward magic. Now he’s a powerful sorcerer and a successful thief for hire, but it turns out that those who stole his memories aren’t done with him yet. When they cause a job to go bad, threatening a sixteen-year-old girl, Nate swears to protect her. But with his enemies closing in and the barrier holding back his memories beginning to crumble, Nate is forced to confront his forgotten life in the hope of stopping an enemy he can’t remember. Crimes Against Magic is a dark, fast-paced urban fantasy torn between modern-day London and fifteenth-century France.

©2013 Steve McHugh (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Worth the listen

Nate Garrett is a very unique thief that lost his memory 10 years earlier. He doesn't know what happened to cause the loss, or even what he is. He knows he possess magic and is thought to be a sorcerer. This story tells us who, what, when, where and why, behind the memory loss. We jump back and forth 600 years to learn the story. It's an interesting story, with Nate getting back memories along with rescuing people he's become close to. You can quit with this book, if it's not to your liking. No cliffhangers and his mysterious past is disclosed. I think I will go forward with the next installment, though.

An enjoyable romp.

A well written adventure in the vein of Clive Cutler or Ian Fleming. The voice artist was up to the task. A good listen. 👍

A good read

This was a good book. Looking for the next one
really enjoyed the narrator m.j

Highly recommend if you like action & magic!

if you are a fan of the Dresden Files or of author Ben Aaronovitch, you will enjoy this series.

This story is far from fluffy. The fight scenes, with both magic and hand to hand, are well written and the action easy to follow. The history adds a layer of believability and details not overburdening. Some books I find my self re-listening to parts over to take in all the details. Not this book.

The main characters are well fleshed out and our hero does not take himself too seriously. The narrator does an excellent job of bringing him and the story to life.

While this is a series, this is also a standalone story with a conclusion. I stayed up til 3am finishing this morning and am ready to start the next!

Exciting listen, great narration!

I was not familiar with this author before this book and I was pleasantly surprised to really enjoy this story.

The character development was great. I started to get invested in them right away. I really appreciated the subtle world setup. He setup the way his world worked during the story instead of bogging the reader down with lengthy explanations.

The narrator was perfect! I really enjoyed his delivery and portrayal of the different characters. This story of energetic and intriguing the whole way through. There's even some passionate scenes, which are rare in books by male authors.

I highly recommend this book! Now off to get book 2!

Mediocre, sorry

It was disappointing, considering all the good reviews for it in the store. I could not relate to any of the characters, scenes or plot decisions. The only character with three-dimensional features was the protagonist, and most of those features were in no small part related to his thoughts of the females waiting to fall into bed with him.
Narrator's manner of reading didn't help matters: his representation of female voices was always sheepish, even when the context called for other emotions.
I guess, I expected something like Dresden Files, but this doesn't measure up even remotely.

Loved It!

I loved it so much that I read all of books back to back. I enjoy any thing with a little Merlin Greek gods and Arthur vib. Nate is the a boogie man with a strong sense of morals. He is able to kick butt when the opportunity requires. There are occasions when he gets his butt kicked but he has a good come back. The whole series revolves around him "finding" himself after having his memory suppressed and learning how to embrace it.

You never get to Avalon or meet Merlin but many of the issues are predicated on policy and procedures from there.The Avalon police force is as fierce as the Gestapo and just as underhanded. a Hades and Persephone are close friends of Nate's and appear through the series. Zesus is missing and the political intrigue it causes effects stories thought out the series.

Nate has flashbacks which just happen to help him solve the problem he is confronted with in modern day. If you like the style of Dresden you will like Nate.

Read them in order. I started the second one first. The back ground information did not give me enough detail. You will not waste a credit on this series!

awesome 1st book. I loved it. twice.

it's not written for little kids. I loved it. Nate is awesome and the entire world he lives in is truly exciting and best of all... it feels real. Yes, vampires and magic and all that but still, it feels real.

Heres the thing...

This book is neither good or bad, It doesn't really have characters that you dislike but also doesn't provide you much of a reason to like the ones that are there. If this book was a color it would be "grey" but then couldn't make up its mind and would call itself "gray".

It feels harsh to write that but I can't make up my mind on it.The world building is just weird and not well thought out, it sets up rules but then violates them for convenance. Heres are a couple examples. Nate is a sorcerer and controls 2 elements, Air and Fire. You cant control more than 2. But there are multiple times that Nate uses Air magic to wrap around someone and crush their chest, just like a.... wait for it... "Russian water tentacle"...:) sorry, every time he used it that came to mind. Or uses air magic to suffocate someone to put them to sleep. Which sounds to me like "water". He uses fire against other magic users and burn them but when he uses it on a table hes tied to he apparently has flameproof skin. Im a Harry Dresden fan, theres a scene in one of his books where Harry uses fire in a similar way and burns his hand into uselessness which plagues him for the next couple of books. In this book when Nate gets wounded or hurt he's back to scratch a few pages later. In that way he's a lot like superman and its difficult caring much about superman because most of the situations he gets into theres no consequences to his actions or failures.

The sad thing is that Ive put more thought into writing this review than Ive needed to put into reading the book. I think it has some interesting areas it can go into and maybe its holding a lot back to pour into the the next books. It introduces werewolf's and vampires and they seem interesting maybe it will gain some traction there.

In short, its a book you don't have to think to much about while listening and there room for books like this. If you wanted something similar but better written then Id suggest checking out the "Dresden Files", "Iron Druid series", or maybe even the "Greywalker series". As for me Im considering the second book but am looking at my wish list for other things.

memory loss wasn't so bad

loved it. very much like dresden files, lovable sorcerer. good story, well told by reader.