Hunter's Moon - David Devereux

I looked at this one a number of times, liked the cover, liked the blurb, never quite made the jump to purchasing until recently. I finally ordered it, and I still love the cover and I still like the back blurb and I finally read it.
Jack introduces himself to us as musician by choice, magician by profession, bastard by disposition and rather pleasingly goes on to prove all those things.
I could make excuses for him, he doesn't have much option once he gets going with magic and frankly if he allowed his conscience to bother him he wouldn't last long, but still he is ruthlessly efficient.
Devereux neatly pulls of the feat of keeping us on Jack's side in this without the villains going too comic book and often without us liking Jack, although by the end I thought he was pretty fantastic, but I possibly have a skewed view of acceptable behaviour.
The plot is entertaining and hangs together well, pulling the reader through events quickly and keeping the pressure on. Magic in this novel is just part of the stuff people don't know is going on around them and it's probably better for them that way. It's interesting to see it as one more field weapon and it worked extremely well.
As with Mike Carey there is something extremely British about Devereux's writing, (possibly because he is, I know), but indulge me. A thriller of this type set in the States would be slick and full of shootings and explosions and cool stuff (or at least those i've read are). This is England, so it's cut throats, slipping into backstreets and sleazy pubs, smacking people in the face with lamps and having to go through official channels to explain the presence of men with guns. Nothing is that big and shiny and spectacular here, it's dark and grimy and brutal and has a dark, dark sense of humour. You can't have a real car chase in London, there is too much traffic and CCTV everywhere and I think it is a real demonstration of the skill of some of our authors that they manage to achieve the same level of tension and excitement in the reader within the constraints of setting. Hunter's Moon is a great example of a strong character and strong storytelling and I am really looking forward to Eagle Rising.