by Sandra Sperling

Reading Fallible Justice was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Contemporary magical realism is usually a good escape from everyday life, and this book was outstanding. Laura Laakso not only created a great plot and setting, but her characters are intriguing, especially Yannia Wilde.Yannia is a private investigator, aided by inexperienced, Karrion, and they live in Old London, which is populated by magical people. This area is surrounded by New London, where the non-magical humans live. Yannia and Karrion struggle to prevent the execution of a man judged guilty of murder, and they have only four days to do so. The Heralds of Justice are supposedly infallible in their judicial decisions, so in spite of their magical powers, Yannia and Karrion have taken a case virtually impossible to win. Even with the help of others in Old London, proving the man innocent seems beyond their powers.

The often-neglected sense of smell is not an issue in this novel, which gives winsome descriptions of the scents associated with each character. Karrion smells of wind and feathers, while Dearon’s scent is of frost, moss and autumn leaves. Wishearth gives off an aroma of logs and wood smoke. If the scents could be bottled, I’d buy an atomizer of Dearon.

The description of Lady Bergamon’s garden is so vivid that I felt as if I were a guest there, along with Yannia and Karrion. Just reading it made me feel recharged. It affected me so deeply that I filled a soup bowl with water and on it, floated three of the last roses of summer, the closest I’ll ever come to being a magical person. Darn.

I read the book twice, which only the very best books can inspire me to do.  Both times, I was pulled in and I felt as if I were a participant in the story, rather than merely the reader. I love this story!

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