Chris Popham is a sales rep for JWW Ltd, selling harmless magic novelties to various stores.  Things like portable parking spaces, instant bank holidays and the hugely popular tubs of powdered water. He also happens to have a satnav in his company car, a rather unusual one that talks to him as well as giving directions. This is no ordinary satnav, but an imprisoned entity trapped in a box.  But why was she imprisoned in the first place?  Chris is just about to find out.

This is another installment in the continuing saga of J. W. Wells, inevitably starring in yet another relationship between a male loser and a female winner. The slight twist is that this man is married, and there is more than one sharp, sassy woman out for his blood and with whom he is destined to fall in love, or at least envy and admire. I would like it if this formula was discarded at least once, but this does not seem likely—at least not in the immediate future. As always I am left feeling impressed at such a finely crafted scenario, surely Mr. Holt’s main strength. This one has a great many twists and turns to it as well as the usual elaborate background and well-realized world that is ours but for a few important magical tweaks. Just when it seemed that everything had been sorted out, it would all start up again in a different direction. Sophisticated, clever and likely to appeal to a wider range of readers than most fantasy.