Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter
This is a story about cats and magicians, and Agnes Aubert, who finds herself caretaker to both. Agnes runs a shelter for the street cats of 1920s Montréal. She takes them in, cleans them up, and adopts them out when they’re healthy, but her shelter has sustained irreparable damage, thanks to irresponsible magicians duelling in broad daylight.
Needing a new home, Agnes stumbles across a nondescript shopfront where she negotiates a deal with a landlord’s agent. Spacious, cheaper, what can go wrong? Agnes can use the whole space, but not the basement. Her landlord (apparently!) magically appears a few days later to vanquish a shrieking female magician threatening to destroy him and the shop. To Agnes’s amazement, supreme magician Havelock Renard then dissolves back into his basement lair, mumbling something about stronger wards.
As time passes, Agnes seeks out Havelock’s company, although he is everything she is not—disorganised, eccentric, irritable. He’s often away, returning wounded or missing body parts, but, as with her cats, Agnes cannot ignore his obvious need for care. As she is pulled further into his orbit, she is definitely not attracted, because he definitely isn’t handsome or alluring—this mysterious, dishevelled, dark-haired man dressed in a charmingly outmoded style—nope, Agnes isn’t attracted at all!
Within the broad fantasy genre, this is one of the most imaginative and absorbing I have read. The appeal arises from many details, including skilled characterisation (not forgetting the cats) and dialogue which races through the pages. The ping-pong sarcasm and wit between the chaotic Havelock and the obsessive-compulsive Agnes is first class and such fun as the story swings from unearthly to amusing and back again. Agnes and Havelock must fight the forces of evil, keep the police at bay, and protect her furry friends. Spectacular. I do hope there’s a book 2!
