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Reviewed by Delene Vrey for Readers' Favorite
Cicero James, Miracle Worker by Hal Emerson is a cracking read. Cicero James is a Worker – someone who, through some horrible tragic event in his life, awakened the ability to fight creatures from the space between spaces. He has a Mentor, an older doctor who took Cicero in after his mother passed. Cicero does mundane things, the daily grind at his uneventful job, but in his free time, he does Works, meaning he takes contracts from the Worker higher-ups and then sends the beasties back to where they belong. Unfortunately, his last beastie killed him. At least that was what should have happened. When Cicero wakes up in the morgue with no deadly wound to his chest, let’s just say things get complicated. Cicero has to escape an unknown threat and prove to Marlowe’s associates that he is to be trusted while coming to terms with his apparent immortality.
Hal Emerson has written an exciting and action-packed urban fantasy and Cicero James reminds me of Harry Dresden and Harley Merlin. The narrative is first-person driven and immediately drew me in, as the author uses age-related language, style, and register. Cicero relates what happens to him in colloquial language, revealing his emotions and making him seem like a typical young man of the 2020s. The book transports the reader into an urban fantasy world that has been well thought out. The allusions to modern-day television and entertainment and references to current world affairs give credence to the characters and plot. The narrative is written as Cicero’s first-hand account of what happened and therefore comes across as authentic and believable. The main theme is the power play between good and evil. There are also themes of trauma and its effects and of trust and deceit. I have not read such a gripping and exciting urban fantasy in a while and I recommend this to anyone who loves gritty urban wizardry.