For those who know the city of New Orleans and enjoy contemporary fantasy, this novel is a rare treat. Instead of focusing on the Big Easy’s more notorious aspects, “License Invoked” treats her as she should be treated – as a character in her own right.
Two other main characters in the novel are Elizabeth Mayfield and Beauray Boudreau who’s known as Boo-Boo to his friends. Elizabeth is a British agent from the Office of Paranormal Sightings Investigation branch of MI-5, disrespectfully referred to as OOPSI.
The British government, of course, seeks to prove that any paranormal occurrences are adequately explained away by more mundane reasons and, if that can’t be done, concludes that they just weren’t able to detect those mundane reasons. Consequently, Elizabeth’s department is a little under funded and when they do get an assignment it’s more along the lines of proving why something couldn’t be supernatural rather than dealing with anything that is supernatural.
Elizabeth is given the assignment of traveling to the States to protect Fionna Kenmare, an Irish singer, who’s starting a tour and claims to have been under some kind of psychic or magical attack. Elizabeth has been selected because a woman can follow another woman more closely than a man could.
However, the plane leaves in about two hours, so the information on the case will be couriered to her. Unfortunately, the courier doesn’t arrive before the plane takes off. Also, because of budget cuts Elizabeth is forced to travel Economy Class instead of in First Class, where Fionna is.
Elizabeth doesn’t actually get to introduce herself to Fionna until they’ve arrived in New Orleans. When she does, the two realize they’ve already met. They were classmates at University and Fionna is the daughter of a very big man in the Ministry of Defense. Hardly the starving Irish beggar girl that her magazine bios make her out to be.
It’s in New Orleans that Elizabeth also meets Boo-Boo. He’s the operative from Department BBB, affectionately known as Bibbity-bobbity-boo, started at the same time the CIA was doing clandestine experiments to determine the possible military applications of LSD.
Department BBB has only two full-time employees, field agents who are on retainer do most of the work. Boo-Boo is one of those agents.
Immediately both agents clash. Each feel they should be the one in charge of the situation. Elizabeth feels that way because Fionna is a British subject and an old acquaintance, although she’s promised not to reveal that fact. Boo-Boo is under the impression that because what could happen will be on his territory he should be the one in charge. Also, the FBI funds his department better than MI-5 funds Elizabeth’s, so Boo-Boo has more “toys” to play with than she does.
What it takes a relatively short time for each agent to discover is that while their respective governments may not believe magic is real or even possible, they themselves have no doubts about its validity. And any doubts they have about the so-called attacks on Fionna are dispelled when one occurs in the States.
This is definitely not heavy reading. However, the writing and the characters are enough to keep you up at night to see what happens next.
And, at the end of the book, after all the loose ends have been tied up, you’ll still be hoping that Elizabeth gets sent on another mission across the Atlantic or that Boo-Boo returns the favor and goes to her aid on her home ground. That is, if there’s an English city that’s as much of a character as New Orleans is.
Lisa Dees is a freelance writer living in Aberdeen.
