Review: Jackaby by William Ritter

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"This world is full of dragon-slayers. What we need are a few more people who aren't too proud to listen to a fish."

This book really is like a Sherlock Holmes meets supernatural in New America. Jackaby has that Sherlockian vibe to him; eccentric, aloof, hyper, and then all of a sudden he flips over to cunning. Although, he is a lot nicer than BBC Sherlock... Most of the time.

"You're a detective, aren't you?" The man's eyes stopped darting and locked with mine again. I knew I was onto him this time. "Yes, you're like whatshisname, aren't you? The one who consults for Scotland Yard in those stories, right? So, what was it? Let me guess, you smelled salt water on my coat, and I've got some peculiar shade of clay caked on my dress, or something like that? What was it?"
The man considered for a moment before responding. "Yes," he said at last. "Something like that."

When you find out how he really figured out where she was from you'll understand that Sherlock + supernatural connection.

But when it comes to observing regular, everyday details... Well, that's Rook's job. Together the two of them make a pretty good duo.

I wonder how many floors we have above us," mused Jackaby [...]
"Should be just one more," I offered. "There were four rows of mailboxes in the lobby, and the numbers only went from the one-hundreds to the four-hundreds." [...]
"The mailboxes?" he said.
"Er, yes. In the lobby."
[...] "That's quite sharp, Miss Rook. Quite sharp, indeed."

Okay, that's enough quotes for now.

I did enjoy the book, but sometimes I kind of became disengaged with it. I feel like the plot lacked some substance to it. Jackaby's character was really the only thing keeping me going. On a good note, the relationship between Jackaby and Rook is completely platonic, she has a thing for Charlie the cop, and is completely uninterested in Jackaby. Which is a nice change to these YA novels. Although, Charlie's character is kind of bland...

I'm not too sure yet if I'll be reading the next book, we'll have to see....

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