The Book of Lamps and Banners

Elizabeth Hand is always a good read. This one surprised me in that there is very little fantasy or sci fi in it. But the premise is that there's a book with fantastical powers that has been found and subsequently stolen. A common premise, but Hand couches it within a mystery thriller with a drug-addled female anti-hero. The result is a taut mystery that takes you from the crowded streets of London amidst neo-Nazi nationalists to the desolation of a Swedish island on the Baltic Sea. This book is the 4th in a series featuring the protagonist, which I didn't know when I got the book, but it reads very well as a standalone. I slipped into the story and was immediately hooked on this mess of a middle aged woman searching for something that will provide her with a windfall to make her life easier.

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