White Cat is the first book in a new series by urban fantasist Holly Black. It concerns a young fellow named Cassell Sharpe who is Not At All Nice, though he would like to be. His world is almost identical to our own, except that a small fraction of the population are “curse workers”—by touching another person with their bare hands, they can give them luck, change their memories, or even kill them. Each curse worker has a single ability…at least, so far as we know so far. (I suspect some inflation might occur in the long run.) As a result, everyone wears gloves pretty much all the time; not wearing gloves is considered improper or even dirty.

Curse working was prohibited in the United States in 1929, and so naturally become the province of organized crime. There are a number of major crime families, and Cassell’s own family is associated with one of the more powerful, the Zakharovs.

These things happen in the best of families, so they say, but the Sharpe’s aren’t one of the best families. Cassell’s mom is a con artist who can make people love her with a touch (and is in prison as a result); one older brother is the lieutenant of the heir-apparent of the Zakharovs; another is in law school. All three are curse workers; Cassell is not. But he’s been well-trained in the con, and he’s the resident bookie at his expensive boarding school.

So Cassell is making his way, pretending to be normal…and then he starts dreaming of a white cat, and sleep-walking. Someone is making him do it…but who?

Julie reviewed this book some while back. I’m kind of hot and cold with Julie’s recommendations; some of the books she likes simply don’t do anything for me. Being home sick, though, I was looking for books to read, and I thought I’d give this one a try. Gladly, this is one of the ones I like. I’m not inclined to gush about it, but it was a good, solid read, and I expect I’ll read the sequel one of these days.