…………………………………………………

The Magic Circle Book Review

The Magic Circle is a 1998 historical thriller novel by Katherine Neville. It is a convoluted and messy book, but one that is undeniably engaging to read and meticulously detailed.

………………………………………………….

“The satisfaction of desire also implies the death of desire“

…………………………………………………..

Ariel Behn, a toxic materials expert at a remote nuclear site, finds her well-ordered life shattered when her cousin is slain by an unknown assassin. His shocking death leaves Ariel as the sole heir to a family legacy: a sinister cache of manuscripts that sweeps her into the deadly center of international intrigue and a mystery that spans the centuries. This was my first time reading a Katherine Neville novel, and although this one isn’t among her best-revered works, I found it to be very involving and intriguing.

Although thought of as a thriller, this story hinges heavily on epic period piece qualities. There are many chapters where the action is taken from the present all the way to Jerusalem during Christ or some other eras, but the aforementioned one gets the most attention from Neville. Very clearly a history buff, Neville makes wonderful use of her extensive knowledge in this area and delivers passages that feel not only historically accurate, but also instantly lived-in. The problem here is that she eventually failed to properly connect all of these disparate historical threads with the present timeline, resulting in them feeling like filler material, though undeniably superbly written filler.

By far the most interesting parts of the novel are set in the present. This is where the thriller elements come in and those were phenomenal. Although in the second half she failed to properly execute and finish her many ideas, the first half is where the author shined, most so in those adventurous elements. Almost functioning as a travelogue in and of itself, The Magic Circle moves the action from the US to the mountains to Vienna and even to the USSR. The result is a high adventure that is consistently engaging and intriguingly plotted in its many conspiracies and twists.

…………………………………………………..

Ariel is a complicated protagonist. Yes, she may feel needlessly passive as a hero and overly obsessed with men, but there is no doubt that her pronounced sexuality did produce a lot of very memorable moments with those men. This is a crazy storyline spanning decades that features a family tree that is filled with tragedy, drama and even incest. The protagonist herself gets involved with two men who are both her distant cousins, which was insane, but it did lead to a very juicy story that was always riveting to follow.

Both of the cousins got ample time to be developed and her relationship with them was well defined. The other older relatives were also interesting and most of them got excellent backstories. There are so many twists regarding this crazy family that seemed overly soapy in retrospect, but they made this story quite a lot of fun regardless.

The Magic Circle benefits from detailed, confident writing style of Katherine Neville, who is particularly adept at writing grounded dialogue and superb descriptions, which resulted in a lot of memorable imagery throughout. Thematically speaking, this is a rather empty book unfortunately as for all of the immediate details and rich history that the author provides, she failed to make any points about them. The pacing could also get problematic here and the tone verged on lightweight way too often. There are so many instantly memorable moments to be found in this novel, but the ending itself failed to act as a proper conclusion to this overly convoluted, though engaging story.

…………………………………………………..