Magic for Liars

Executive Summary: A pretty good story that combines the magic school trope with fantasy mystery trope in an enjoyable fashion.

Audiobook: Xe Sands did a good job with the narration. This was a few books ago now so I don't really remember it standing out one way or another. It is probably one of those books that is fine in audio, but not a must listen.

Full Review
I picked this one up after reading some best books of the year list and thinking the story and the length was a good fit for my short and light end of year criteria.

I mean the premise is a murder at a magic school, so I guess not THAT light, but it's far from grimdark fantasy too.

I listened to most of it in a single go during my holiday roadtrip and it helped pass the time quite well.

I found the main character likeable enough, but for me the main hook was the magic school trope. The fantasy detective is pretty overdone these days, but having the detective not able to do magic was a nice twist on things to set this apart.

The mystery itself was decent, but not great. I don't go out of my way to try to guess what happened, but I've read enough books that sometimes it just seems apparent to me. This was one of those, but not until a good portion of the book was over.

Overall this was a good listen and is nice because it's stand alone. That's pretty hard to come by these days, and I wouldn't be surprised if a second book gets written at some point.