I was happy to see Seanan McGuire's new InCrypted volume was being released, even if the library wasn't getting a copy, requiring buying a copy which leads to the more targeted advertising e-mails. Which is neither here nor there.
Once again, Tricks for Free centers on Antimony Price, the youngest of the Price siblings, who was last seen hitchhiking towards Florida after burning down a carnival that the Covenant of St. George was targeting for a purge. Now, we find her getting a job at Lowryland (a competitor to DisneyWorld) thanks to some HR intervention on behalf of a random encounter with a cheerleader she went to high school with. Thankfully, she's now sharing company owned apartment life with a sylph and a Pliny's Gorgon, with whom she shares some background thanks to her brother Alex's work with Gorgons and with her own Roller Derby days.
Unfortunately, a late night roller skate through the park with Fern (the sylph Roller Derby girl), ends up with them stumbling across a dead stabbing victim, which in turn leads to attention to Annie from the cabal of magic users who run the park. Including a sorcerer who offers to train Annie to keep her from accidentally setting guests on fire or some such.
Which is fine, since control means not having to deal with night fires. Unfortunately, this also leads to such things as finding her magic is missing when unfortunate events start cropping up in her vicinity, like hot fryers exploding on workers, parade floats collapsing and killing guests and workers...
Aunt Mary (a crossroads ghost) ends up bringing in Annie's furi boyfriend Sam to Florida, and Fern ends up getting a Roller Derby jinks involved in what ends up being free for all vs the cabal behind the scenes at Lowryland.
As an added bonus, we get a novella tucked in at the end detailing parts of the journey of Mork and Mindy, the Aeslin mice Annie left in Sam's care with instructions to get them back to Portland, which also details Sam's encounters with Aunt Mary.
Again, a fast moving and fun entry into the series, which again ends with some seeds for whatever is coming next.
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