Three Parts Dead

Executive Summary: I'm not much of a fan of urban fantasy, but this one was different enough than many I've read such that I'll be happy to pick up the next one. 3.5 stars rounded up for its uniqueness.Full ReviewOne of my reading goals the last few years has been to not get suckered in by daily deals and continue to add books to my owned and unread shelf. So of course I bought 5 books in this series when they were on sale last year based on the strength of some of my friend's reviews of this book.I read this book pretty much in two sittings (a rarity for me) while I was sitting on cross-country plane rides. That can sometimes make a bad book seem better than it really is, but this year I had my Nintendo Switch as a backup if I was really bored. The fact that I didn't think about picking it up until after I finished the book is a good sign.Many of these Urban fantasy books have a magical private eye or cop who wields magic behind the scenes in a world most people are blind to its existence. Not so here. This is a world where the power of gods is used to power cities and have resulted in wars. Power is traded like a stock-market carefully balanced to keep the obligations made. Then suddenly one of the gods dies.So of course here come the magical lawyers, ready to carve everything apart, dig into the magical contracts and fight it out in court. Wait, what? As a kid I was a big fan of [a:John Grisham 721 John Grisham https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1413390525p2/721.jpg] novels and the TV show JAG. I must admit the idea of combining fantasy and law drama really appealed to me.At times this book does read more like your typical Urban Fantasy mystery novel than it does a law-room drama, but overall the world Mr. Gladstone has built feels like truly his own. I wouldn't have minded if seemily prerequisite vampires didn't play a role in the story, but thankfully that was fairly minimal.I really enjoyed Tara as a protagonist, and spent much of the book wondering how exactly she ended up where she was. I was glad that we found it all out in this book rather than rationing it out over several books. Then again I've been told she's either not in the next book, or at least not the main protagonist, which I find unfortunate. I hope that she'll make a return later in the series (especially since I own so many of them already).The magic system was pretty interest/unique to me, especially the ways in which it seems to be combined with the law as well as the powers of gods. I will say however it's not as well-defined as I generally prefer in my magic systems so I hope we get more refinement as the series goes on.Overall I thought this was a pretty good light read, that was perfect entertainment for passing time on a long plane ride. I plan to pick up the second book at some point later this year.