… a diviner with a troubling past and a dangerous future … 

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Alex Verus is the owner of Arcana Emporium, a shop in Camden Town, North London. He’s also a diviner with a troubling past and a dangerous future with a sort of cursed girlfriend and a habit of not taking sides.   Alex gets dragged into the middle of a treasure hunt with Dark and Light mages competing for an ancient prize hidden in the British Museum: a fateweaver, a wand that can control the future.    Ghosts from Alex’s teenage years come back to haunt him – and kill him – as he tries to protect the ones he loves and hold himself apart from the deadly competitors’ claims on his loyalty.

Benedict weaves a thoroughly enjoyable story with a likeable and damaged hero through to a thrilling and very well constructed end.  I would say there’s slightly too much explanation which began to slow the pace down, but I’m guessing Benedict’s writing can only get better.

A great addition to any urban fantasy shelf and, as Fated is the first in a series of seven, I look forward to reading more …

Cover design moment: The UK covers for at least the first couple in the series are by Sian Wilson. She is currently a Senior Designer at Simon and Schuster .  They really are good which is just as well as they have to compete with the urban fantasy bestseller, Ben Aaronovitch‘s, gorgeous covers based on a work by Stephen Walter. 

Fated was published by Orbit in March 2012.  I came across the book as the first chapter was printed in the back of  Chasing Embers by James Bennett.