Although FBI Agent Kimberley Reynolds has worked with Peter Grant from time to time since she helped him investigate the fatal stabbing of a US Senator’s son in ‘Whispers Under Ground’, ‘Winter’s Gifts’ is the first book with her as the main character.

I was looking forward to this ‘Spin Off’ story but I was disappointed at how thin the story felt. The book had that Series 1 Episode 1 feel to it, where you can see the potential but you can also see that the series hasn’t hit its stride yet.

I liked the plot. It used a clever mix of First Nation traditions and early US history to create unique threats and it had enough twists to keep me guessing about the source of the threat and what needed to be done about it.

It didn’t seem to me that there was enough to Kimberly Reynolds to lift the story up. Part of the problem is that she has no magical abilities of her own to call on so she can’t do the things that Peter or even Abigail might do in London. We learn very little about her as an individual except that she avoids swearing and she is a practising Christian who has accepted Jesus Christ as her saviour. What we don’t learn is how she squares her religious beliefs with her experiences with magic users. Unlike Peter Grant, she seems incurious about what magic is and how it works. Interacting with various Genus Loci at home and abroad has left her unfazed but I kept wondering why that was. It reminded me of an Avengers meme:

It’s not Reynold’s faith that bothers me but the absence of any need to reframe that faith in the light of her experience. Of course, I’m looking at this through my atheist eyes so I may be missing something.

I think the main gap between the novella and my expectation was that there was very little humour here. It felt like there was a layer of the book missing. Here’s how I imagine the novella checklist might have gone:

Plot? Check.
Local Spirits? Check.
American main character who isn’t white and male? Check.
Humour based on social commentary or self-deprecation? Nah – it’s a novella. We don’t have the space. And besides, this is America, their humour is different.

If ‘Winter’s Gifts’ really had been the first book in a new series I’d have been entertained but wouldn’t be searching eagerly for the next book.