This was the third in the series and sadly for me it was a disappointment. After reading 'Dark Dreams' the 2nd book. I was very eager to read 'The Magician's Accomplice' It started off good at the shooting of the Denis Macek a starving student who schemes a means for a free breakfast at a swank 5 star hotel.

I'm not sure when it actually went in a downward spiral but the whole escapade of Mataivona and the dead student Uncle a retired magician went from a bit corny to total stupid.

There were sue high points the primary one being Colonel Trokan but the cast from Europool and most often other characters simply were a big downward from Genelin's previous two

I go for number four in the series 'Requiem for Gypsy' and hope Genelin doesn't disappoint ( )

I picked up this book because it was set in Slovakia, and because I've read some excellent European crime novels published by this publisher, SOHO Crime. By the first lumbering, confusing sentence I was thinking, " Poor Slovakian author, how unfortunate for him that his book has been translated so badly." Eventually though, I read the back blurb and found that the author is American, a graduate of UCLA law! He should stay with the law. His prose is leaden, the plot is ludicrous and the characters are robotic. ( )

Slovakian Commander Janka Matinova is sent to Europol's headquarters in the Netherlands on the brink of her fiance and Slovakian's national prosecutor's bomb-related murder to avoid interfering in the investigation by her Colonel (chief of detectives). Along the way, on the plane ride over in fact, the uncle of anther murder victim killed the same day as her finance finds her and they team up to investigate the deaths of their two loved ones that are somehow related.
Good plot, dull characters, manuscript errors all put together for this tale of international intrigue. I really thought I would enjoy this novel pairing magic/magicians in a police procedural mystery. However, the magician had little or nothing to do with the story and his character could have easily been replaced by any other boring side-kick including a dog. The main character acted like a robot during the entire novel. For the love of God! Her fiance was murdered and she was sent to another country to avoid being "in the way" of the investigation, and she "suppresses her feelings for professionalism". The plot does plod along, but it feels very contrived and action scenes were poorly written. And, as always, I am so tired of errors in the finished product. Is that what editors get paid for? ( )