Dumpstermancer 2: Duplicity--The Homeless Mage As A Detective

Duplicity is the second in the Dumpstermancer series.  Discarded,which begins this set of urban fantasy adventures, was my first encounter with the work of  Dumpstermancer's creator Michael J. Allen.  I reviewed it here.   I had initially requested  a free copy of Duplicity for review, but I needed the background from Discarded in order to review it properly.  If you were considering reading Duplicity first because of the cool cover, I definitely don't advise it. These books aren't standalones.  That's why Allen generously gifted me with both novels.

                            

  So I was introduced to homeless mage Eli Graham in Discarded.  In Duplicity readers learn about the events in Eli's past that made him so accustomed to false accusations, but the main plot focus of this book is a common trope in urban fantasy.  Eli becomes an investigator of a series of supernatural crimes.  There appears to be a killer using magic to eliminate the homeless, but the situation is more complex than that.  I don't want to be more specific to avoid spoilers.

Since I read mysteries regularly, I am accustomed to following clues.  I figured out the solution to this murder case quite early in the novel.  Eli did have to deal with constant new developments, and other distractions due to the difficulties of surviving on the street.  So I understood why he didn't figure out what was happening as soon as I did, but I did wonder if he might be slow on the uptake because he never did solve the case.  There was a big reveal at the end, but it didn't astonish me at all.

I appreciated Eli's creativity with spells even though he wasn't much of a detective.  After all, designing spells had been his profession.  He never claimed that sleuthing was his forte, and  he was essentially drafted into the investigation.  I also respected Eli's honesty about his own flaws.

Razcolm, the spirit who inhabited Eli's magical origami creations, was as snarky as he'd been in Discarded.  I was glad to see from the preview appended after the end of this book, that Razcolm would be practicing the art of snarkiness  in Dumpstermancer 3: Disrupted.

I liked Duplicity, but didn't love it.  I admit that I preferred Discarded.  Since my priority is always on original concepts, the second book in a series often feels less fresh than the first.   I am hoping that Michael J. Allen will throw in some really surprising magical innovations in Disrupted.