The Rook

The supertitle of this book by Daniel O'Malley is "On Her Majesty's Supernatural Secret Service" which gives you a pretty good idea of what is coming. This is a very clever book. Along with the  tongue-in-cheek and over-the-top descriptions of gooey, gorey no-good-niks, is an inventive plot. Myfanwy Thomas wakes up in a park surrounded by dead bodies wearing latex gloves and she has no idea how she got there or who she is. She does find a couple of letters in her pocket, though, that give her some clues. There is a wallet with credit cards in two names and instructions to go immediately to an ATM and get money under the name Ann Ryan and then check into a hotel under the same name. She gets further instructions in the letter to retrieve one of two safe deposit boxes at a certain bank, depending on whether she wants to take on Myfanwy's life, or escape altogether and start her own life from scratch. Oh, and she gets some advice to get regular check-ups since colon cancer runs in the family. This wonderful mix of the semi-serious and the absurd make this a thoroughly entertaining book--totally British sense of humor, even though the author is Australian. Reminds me a lot of the series by Gail Carriger ("The Parasol Protectorate"--see my reviews of those books) except this one is set in contemporary times and forgoes the bodice ripper element.
Myfanwy--a Welsh name which she chooses to pronounce Miff-un-ee--is a Rook in a very secret organization called the Checquy which protects England from supernatural threats. The organization has been around for hundreds of years and its existence is known only to the monarchs, the prime minister and a few other very high-up officials in the government. A Rook (or castle in the game of chess) is quite an important member of The Court in the Checquy, co-managing (there are two of them, sort of) any domestic threats while the Chevaliers (knights) manage international operations, and the Bishops oversee the entire organization under the leadership of the Lord and Lady (they did not think it right to call them King and Queen for obvious reasons). Someone in The Court is a traitor and has attacked Myfanwy, obliterating her memory. Fortunately, Myfanwy had warnings that something like this would happen from not one, but four different psychic sources (including a prophetic duck) and so she has prepared for the event by writing her future self letters and a detailed notebook of information and instructions.  When the new Myfanwy decides to take on the old Myfanwy's life instead of escaping to South America to become Ann Ryan, she has her hands full. Fortunately, her retainer/ secretary, Ingrid is there to pick up some of the slack, even though she doesn't have "powers." Although this is a bit long at almost 500 pages, I would recommend this highly if you like the supernatural and enjoy British humor. I would give this one 4.5 stars (out of 5). There is a 2nd book coming and I can hardly wait!