Gabriel Blackstone is a thief. He breaks into the locked systems of rich corporations to steal data. He makes a good living off of it too but his life is about to get more interesting when he receives a call from his ex-girlfriend, Frankie. She is now married to a wealthy but ailing millionaire who is desperate to find his missing son.
Along with being a whiz with computers, Gabriel is also a remote-viewer, something along the lines of a psychic. After a disastrous episode at the firm Eyestorm, Gabriel stopped “slamming rides” but to help Frankie he will have to use his psychic abilities once again to find out what happened to the missing young man.
Gabriel reluctantly agrees to help and his initial research leads him to the Monk Sisters, Morrighan and Minnaloushe, two very seductive modern day witches living in a rambling Victorian home where time seems to stand still. The Monk sisters are obsessed with the ancient Art of Memory, a practice first invented by the Greeks, which uses alchemy to transform their own minds.
The closer Gabriel comes to finding out the truth about the sisters, the deeper he falls into their world of secrets and alchemy and almost forgets his initial mission putting loved ones and himself in grave danger.
Initially I had a bit of a hard time falling into the story. I expected more emphasis on the gothic and the arcane and instead I was in a world where the witches were using computers but slowly I was swept into the narrative, and I particularly enjoyed the character of Isidore, Gabriel's best friend and hacker extraordinaire, who serves to add some humor and is a good foil to Gabriel's character. There are some very good twists in the novel that I didn't see coming and a very satisfying conclusion.
Added 10/07