Format: Hardcover, 256 pages
Release Date: January 30, 2024
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy / Contemporary
Being
an apprentice to one of the world's most famous sorcerers has its
challenges; Tabatha Zeng just didn’t think they would include solving
crime. But when her boss, the infamous fortuneteller Sorcerer Solomon,
predicts his own brutal death—and worse, it comes true—Tabatha finds
herself caught in the crosshairs.
The police have their sights
set on her and Callum Solomon, her murdered boss’s youngest son. With
suspicion swirling around them, the two decide to team up to find the
real killer and clear their own names once and for all.
But
solving a murder isn’t as easy as it seems, especially when the suspect
list is mostly the rich, connected, and magical members of Sorcerer
Solomon’s family. And Tabatha can’t quite escape the nagging voice in
her head asking: just how much can she really trust Callum Solomon?
Nothing is as it seems in this quick-witted and fantastical murder mystery.
Andrea Tang's These Deadly Prophecies is a contemporary fantasy about a teenaged sorcerer's apprentice who must solve the murder of one of the worlds most famous Sorcerer's in order to prove her innocence in a story that mixes the strangeness of Knives Out and twists and turns of the The Inheritance Games. 17-year-old Tabatha Zeng is finishing high school but she's already a sorcerer’s apprentice and not just any sorcerer but one infamous for the most rare talent of fortune telling.
Tabatha is a Chinese-American who has defied her parents who expected her to become a lawyer, or something more prestigious. When Julian Solomon tells Zeng that he will be murdered by my best beloved, she didn't think that his prophecy would come true. But when she arrives to find him very much dead, she's suddenly plunged headfirst into the nasty family dysfunction that he left behind and she's determined to find his killer. But who can she trust?
To top it off, Solomon has told Zeng that she must stick close to Solomon's youngest son Callum. And, there's Solomon vast knowledge and resources up for whomever is named heir. Tabatha quickly learns that it’s not easy to be Nancy Drew when all of your suspects are extremely rich and powerful. To make matters worse, Detective Elena Chang is straight out of the Salem's Witch Trials era. She works for the Occult Crimes unit and is an Anti-Sorcery Crusader. She would love to put the entire Solomon family away.
The list of suspects is not surprising or shocking. Callum attends the same high school as Tabatha, and he wasn't exactly happy to learn that his own father took more of an interest in her, than Callum. Julian Solomon's wives, ex, and current, are at the top of the list as well. Angelique wants Solomon's power and wealth, Rowena, mother to Callum who has no powers of her own, wants to protect him from being caught up in something twisted.
Then there's Felix, the oldest, and his twin sister Circe who seems to be carrying lots of baggage of being in her brothers shadows and being ignored by their father. Lastly, Hester O'Riley who was apprentice before Tabatha. Greed is a dangerous force when it drives the heart of a sorcerer. Tabatha is a bit of a racist at times. She's jealous of the ease Solomon's family moves through the world. Their money, status, and race lend them a leg up on her. Pretty sick of authors who think all white people have this sort of privilege.
Unraveling the mystery is one of the positives of this story. You really have to pay attention to each of the characters so the villain doesn't shock you when they are revealed.
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