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.

Great read

Loved it. Excellent narrator made the listening a real pleasure. Looking forward to the next book.

Great narration and story!

I really enjoyed McHugh's story line and look forward to his other books. I have always found it hard to find stories that blend fantasy and magic with our world. I enjoyed Langton's narration of the story, too.

Great book!

Loved the main character. Really enjoyed the book. Hope there is more with this sorcerer. Very entertaining. Loved the audible.

It's okay.

Story is neither particularly compelling nor surprising at any point. Performance is adequate. I got it cheap so it did the job between credits refreshing.

adult urban fantasy

Any additional comments?

This has a lot of interesting stuff going on. He's like this chick magnet awesome guy with powers, and there are bad guys. I liked it, but it got to be too many elements added in for me. It went from present to way in the past with knights and stuff. It also brings in figures from history during that time. And then some gods and stuff. So, yes, I liked it, the writing craft is really good, but the storyline had too much for this first book, I think. I'm interested enough that I plan to check out the next book at some point. Fans of super hero movies and comics will probably like it.

It was enjoyable for the most part

The story was alright overall, a nice starter to a series though idk if I can say I have a good idea of the world beyond this book, but I almost quit listening earlier in the story due to how the protagonist, all the various ladies, and sexual relationships were being described. It's not frequent in the overall sense of the story, but it felt so bad I was dreading any future bedroom/sexy time scenarios. Hopefully that changes in future books

An information intense fantasy download

This is the first book of the Hellequin series that opens a door in to a fully fleshed world that lives underneath the skin of ours. I purchased this on Audible because it popped up on my feed based on other fantasy that I had purchased and it had good reviews and was cheap, like 7.34 cheap for an almost 11 hour book.

What can go wrong?

In the present, the main character, Nate Garrett, had woke up 10 years a prior with no memory of who he was and found out that he can do magic and has since turned into a magical thief for hire. Then the next chapter takes place in the middle ages and he is a warrior sorcerer who is the is the hit man for Merlin. In the present, his past catches up with him and the stories come together to something that links these two times together.

This book was information dense, meaning if I wasn’t paying attention, I would miss plot points. I tend to fall asleep with my MP3 player on a 15 minute timer and this book kept me up for hours past my bedtime resetting the timer. This is sort of the way I judge audiobooks, this was fast paced, the plot twists were devious and what plot holes it had were totally left there intentionally. I’m looking forward to the rest of the series.

Advice? Pick it up while it’s still cheap in any format and hold on.

I Am Nate Garret!

This was a very slick and impressive first outing. I really liked the story arc and the characters were well developed. The protagonist(Nate Garret) definitely made the book-not only does he have style and class, his balls are so big he needs a wheel-barrow to move around! A minute please, I'm still laughing over that wheel-barrow joke....okay, my only complaint about book 1 would be that the magic system could've been fleshed out a little more but it's barely worth mentioning at all. The narrator, James Langton, did an amazing job with the character's voices and especially their accents! Good job Steve McHugh on your first book!


You guys, next to that Vietnamese hooker, this is best 7 dollars I've spent in a long time! I'll be downloading book 2 as soon as I'm done with this review.

crime against magic

absolutely love this story. I'm hooked, Nathan is just such a cool character. I got sucked in and couldn't stop listening. all the characters came to life. definitely a +20 for me, highly recommend this book!!!!!

Great story!!

This was a great story! I very much enjoyed the storyline and the narrator's voice. I look forward to the next book in the series.