Magic for Liars

Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey, 336 pages

Ivy Gamble is a private investigator with a long history of catching adulterers and cons. But Magic for Liars finds her taking on her biggest case yet — the murder of a teacher at a high school for magical children...where her twin sister works...and is therefore a suspect. Magic-free and trying to hide it, Ivy heads to Osthorne Academy for Young Mages to try to untangle the motives, magic, and high school rumors that surround this crime.

While a lot of people would hear "magical school" and immediately think of Harry Potter, this is thematically much closer to Veronica Mars in its examination of teenagers and the very real hijinks they can get up to. I enjoyed Gailey's take on high school, and I liked Ivy as a boozing PI character. I was able to figure out the twists way before I should have, but really, I loved the setting and the story enough to overlook it. I look forward to their next novel!