For a novel that had very little real action, at least compared to the earliest novels in the series, this moved pretty fast for me. Lots of delving into characters not given much time in the past, as well as areas of TunFaire only hinted at previously. I enjoyed the by-play of some of the marginal characters who finally had a chance to take Center Stage. Not the best of the series, but not the worst by any means. Either way, this appears to be the *last* of the series :-( It's been six years since this was published. In the past, a new Garrett, P.I. novel showed up every 18 months or so. Sad, but every well runs dry, eventually.

And I still adore Cook's (often daft) character names. 'Furious Tide of Light' is such a great name. A grand underground tournament has been set up and is meant to be a battle-royale type: the kids are in it if they want to or not and whether they have actual magic powers or not. This case gets very close for Garrett personally because someone he loves has died and now he is out for revenge. Some notes: Firstly, while this is a review of WBA, it's also going to pull in my opinions on some of the other books, and the series as a whole too.I think what ended up happening was that a lot of little niggling frustrations i'd collected and subsequently forgave throughout the series, just came to a head for me and made getting through this book an absolute slog; it was an almost painful experience. It got to the point where i was looking for excuses not to read.

Another thing that made this book hard to follow at times is the sheer size of the cast. Over the series, a lot of characters have been introduced into Garrett's life. It seems every single one of those characters made at least an appearance in this story. Plus a whole bunch of new characters are introduced. This book, more than any other, felt like Garrett being led around by the nose by more talented people i'd rather be following, and being scolded for not being perceptive by everybody and their sister. Our hero, ladies and gentlemen.On the middle (?!) side: There are some, er, inventive language choices that I don't think worked all that well. (Mad skills? Really?) and there are some intriguing new mysteries and characters that are only teased at. But there is also quite a bit of character growth; Cook has obviously given some attention to each of the main supporting casts' roles and growth and it plays well. First of all, ‘P.I.’ in this book didn’t stand for ‘Private Investigator.’ It stood, instead, for ‘Public Investigation.’ Historically, Garrett has relied on his friends for assistance in his investigations. In this book, Garrett starts the investigation, and then everyone else takes it from there. A magical contest is threatening the young of the more wealthy families in Tunfaire. Garret's new family ties have dragged him into the conflict. Now , he and his friends and a few other assorted allies have to stop the madness before too many people are killed. Plots within plots within plots will have to be untamgled to get to the truth.