Book 7 in Dan Willis’s Arcane Casebook series is Capital Murder. Once again we join private eye/runewright Alex Lockerby as he fights the forces of evil in a magical 1930s America.

Alex has gotten pretty good at traveling by supernatural means, but only in one direction. Wherever he is, he can get home by opening a magical portal to his interdimensional vault, which opens into his home and office. But when his sometime boss Andrew Barton, the Lightning Lord of New York (who provides the city’s electricity through sorcery) wants him to accompany him to Washington DC, they have to take an airship.

Once there, Alex gets an appeal from the widow of a senator, who was recently murdered. She does not believe the man the police are accusing is really guilty. Will Alex investigate? Also a major gang leader wants Alex to locate his nephew, who has disappeared. On top of that, Alex is surprised to find that his sort-of girlfriend, sorceress Sorsha Kincaid, is in town investigating for the FBI, and she’s furious because the newspapers are giving Alex credit for her own successes. And you don’t want to see Sorsha angry…

Not highbrow entertainment, Capital Murder was an enjoyable read, like the other books in the series. We are also learning gradually more about a mysterious group called the Legion (biblical reference) which has some kind of malevolent plan to rule the world.

It was fun.