The third book in the series “The Collegium Chronicles”, a sub-arc for the larger “Valdemar” series.

In this adventure Mags, a student at a school for people with special powers, spends a lot of time pretending to be the deaf assistant to a local pawnbroker/fence, who is really an assistant to the King. They are trying to track down some killers with supernatural abilities, who are probably on the same mission of destruction that the killers in Books One and Two were on. There is a lot of tension, an attempted kidnapping, a successful kidnapping, and a climactic confrontation. But not climactic enough – the real hidden master handling the puppets is still unknown.

The book is fun enough, but this third volume seems to have settled into a formula, almost planned by page number. We figure out early in the book that the author has a long-term plan in mind but doesn’t want too much to happen in any one book. The characters are interesting but don’t grow quite as much as one would expect. The villains are scary but featureless. Fortunately the author’s lively writing style pulled me through the book.

I enjoyed this book as much as the last two. I didn't get the answers I expected from it though... and it kind of threw me off until I realized there are MORE books about Mags. I'm so used to Mercedes Lackey's trilogies I just assumed this was one too! So if you're like me, don't worry! there is more!