I would like to thank Solaris for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher – Solaris

Published – Out Now

Price – £14.99 paperback £7.99 Kindle eBook

Never stake more than you can afford to lose.

When failed magician turned cardsharp Valen Quinol is given the chance to play in the Forbearance Game—the invitation-only tournament where players gamble with secrets—he can’t resist. Or refuse, for that matter, according to the petty gangster sponsoring his seat at the table. Valen beats the man he was sent to play, and wins the most valuable secret ever staked in the history of the tournament.

Now Valen and his motley crew are being hunted by thieves, gangsters, spies and wizards, all with their own reasons for wanting what’s in that envelope. It’s a game of nations where Valen doesn’t know all the rules or who all the players are, and can’t see all the moves. But he does know if the secret falls into the wrong hands, it could plunge the whole world into war…

Its amazing how many things in life get labelled a game – politics and diplomacy. All ones where there will be winners and losers; people found lying and cheating and thinking winning is everything. Is it to help us distance it all from consequences that actually happen to real people? The Knave of Secrets by Alex Livingston has a great idea of showing the microcosm and macrocosms in a game of diplomatic intrigue, magic and yet also involving con artists and card games but ultimately I felt a game that didn’t quite win me over.

Valen Quinol was once going to be a magician but instead now plays cardgames for money. Sometimes winning because he is very good at cards and sometimes through intricate cheating and even sometimes a magical ability to pick the right card for when he needs it. He and his wife Marguerite dream of striking t rich and having their own reputable casino but for now its slowly making the money to buy a place by any means necessary. He is though a little alarmed when one of the most sinister gang criminal bosses responsible for the group known as the Knaves forcefully requests he helps ensure at a infamous card game that someone loses. The price for the loser is their dearest secret will be revealed. With Valen’s gang they get success but soon find they too seem to be pawns in a game and now try to find out what this is all about and stay alive in the process.

So I did enjoy the idea of card games of chance being effectively the battle weapons in this fantasy. A nice commentary on how the powerful and wealthy often see everything as tools and even a defeat can sometimes be shrugged off. Livingston has written this almost in the style of a much older novel in term of language and pacing and this not quite anywhere European world of countries spying on each other with magic also around seems interesting but ultimately never felt that engaged with the tale. Valen and his crew in a fairly short tale never really came alive in the way I like my con artists to do so. Importantly oi never felt I cared either about them or the stakes at large. Not helped by character biographies being more infodumps rather than stories being told. The card games are very much the main event being explained ina great level of detail and ultimately, I’m not a fan of many systems being explained in books I would prefer to get on with the actual story.

Despite some very entertaining early passages I’m afraid I found the rest of the book hard work and not a book I can recommend. Those who enjoy magic systems and immersion in worlds with them I hope will find more to latch onto but for me this is the end of the game.