They weren’t Greek to me; I could read that. These marks reminded me of astrological glyphs, of hermetic seals, but I could read those, too. They looked familiar. But I didn’t know them, and I couldn’t put my finger on where I had seen them before. Even Though I Knew the End won the Nebula Award for Best Novella of 2022, [1] and was a finalist for the 2023 World Fantasy Award—Novella, [2] the 2023 Hugo Award for Best Novella, [3] and the 2023 Aurora Award for Best Novelette/Novella. [4] Publishers Weekly commended Polk for their "focus on character development [that] makes every interaction matter [in] a layered exploration of love and power with genuine emotional stakes and a soaring, perfectly bittersweet payoff", and judged that "readers will wish they had more time to explore [the world of the story]". [5]

A magical detective dives into the affairs of Chicago's divine monsters to secure a future with the love of her life. This sapphic period piece will dazzle anyone looking for mystery, intrigue, romance, magic or all of the above. But maybe, just maybe, they don’t know the end at all. Maybe there really is room to hope for more, and for a brighter future, no matter the plans of angels and demons. I took a bit of my eggs like I was thinking about it. "And all I have to do for my soul and a thousand dollars is find the White City Vampire." Honestly, where do I begin. This was WAYYY too short. Too short, too good. I need more. More of these characters, of this world, of this writing, please.

I lifted the collar of my coat and gathered up my dignity. I was Helen Brandt. He was Initiate Theodore Brandt, and I wouldn’t air out our family business in front of a stranger, even if he knew the rumors anyway.

But C.L. Polk subverts the typical tropes by writing a main character who’s not only a woman, but a sapphic woman at that. In everything else, Helen stands by the conventions of the genre—she’s a down-and-out detective who doesn’t get along with law enforcement, she’s as brusque as she is charismatic, and while she might have a rough exterior, she also has a heart of gold. Essentially, the plot to this book is that there is a serial killer who needs stopping, and Helen has a shot at changing her (doomed) future if she catches the killer, plus she really wants to catch the killer anyway, and there are a ton of other things going on that will all make perfect sense if you have ever read a Raymond Chandler novel and are accustomed to mysteries where the mystery is only one part of the larger story. (Confession: I am a big Chandler fan even when the plots don’t make perfect sense.) (FYI – Polk does not suffer from Chandler’s occasional lapses in plot coherence.) (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, google ‘‘The Big Sleep’’ and ‘‘who killed the chauffeur.’’) World Fantasy Award winner C. L. Polk casts magic over mid-century Chicago in Even Though I Knew the End, an extraordinary fantasy noir—arriving November 8, 2022 with Tordotcom Publishing. Damn it. I’d been pinched, and it was my own fault. I had cast no wards at all. I wasn’t great with the invisibility glamour. I hadn’t even set up a trip line. I had been sloppy, and I deserved to get caught. In terms of what didn’t work for me, I’m havering on my standard “I wish this was longer” complaint that I apparently serve to absolutely single short story or novella I read. To be honest, I think there was just enough detail in terms of the setting, and Helen and Edith’s relationship, that the length mostly contributed to the intensity of the narrative. I could personally have taken more of Helen and Edith—as in, six or seven books more—but I think that’s more about how much I loved them, not that their relationship didn’t feel fully served by the story.Lastly, if you’re an audiobook person, I highly recommend it. Narrator January LaVoy was a delight. She hit every voice, every accent, every kernel of subtext perfectly. Usually I listen to audiobooks while doing other activities, but she made it hard to concentrate on anything else.

Blood Magic: The reason why the White City Vampire is called such is because all of their murders have painted the nearby walls in blood to perform a magic ritual to steal the victim's soul. But this is also a book about sacrifice and love and hope and how those three things can take so many different shapes, yet sometimes they look the very same. I highly recommend this one and pray it will be the first book in a series.In a moment that gives away nothing about the story itself, Polk takes a beat to heighten the sense of hope that infuses the whole novella. There’s only one end to this story you’re reading, Polk seems to say to readers. But hope anyway. Hope, even though you know the end. Helen would love to keep the two people she loves most—her estranged younger brother, Ted, and her lover, Edith—out of harm’s way, especially when her case is so very dangerous. But Ted is a member of a magical brotherhood, the same one that expelled Helen when she made her demonic deal, and he’s working the very same case. Edith, despite her dislike of violence, has reasons she can’t stay away from the work, as well. Those connections are another departure from the traditional noir narrative, where the lonely PI ends the story alone and unchanged; here, Helen’s relationships set the stakes of the story, showing us what’s at risk if she fails. And Polk sets up those relationships to hook readers with both the fear that we know how things will turn out, and the hope that we don’t, and that maybe, maybe there’s a happy ending out there for the characters. Intuition still had its lips to my ear. I depressed the shutter button with the lens pointed in their direction before I grabbed air and gave a grin. “The scene’s clean, but a second look never hurt—Aw, hell.”