Black Swan Rising by Lee Carroll (Tor, $14.99 trade paperback original, 9780765325976/0765325977, August 3, 2010)

Garet James is a 26-year-old jewelry designer who lives with her father in a town house in Manhattan's West Village that also houses his art gallery--although, as Black Swan Rising opens, the economic crisis of late 2008 brings the looming threat of foreclosure. One day, Garet stumbles upon a strange antiques shop in her neighborhood, where the proprietor (who's familiar with her work) hires her to open a silver box. Once she completes her task, thieves break into her home, stealing the box--along with some valuable paintings, leading the police to suspect her father is attempting an insurance fraud. So Garet sets out to clear her father's name, discovering in the process that she is descended from a long line of women who guard the barriers between this world and the supernatural realms and--wouldn't you know it--she's got to get that box back and close it tight before disaster is let loose upon the city.

Lee Carroll (not the New Age author who channels angelic spirits, but the husband-and-wife team of Lee Slominsky and mystery writer Carol Goodman) keeps the story moving at a brisk pace, as Garet finds herself receiving assistance from Oberon and other members of the fairy kingdom. Her mystical drill instructors are sketched out in ways that playfully indicate archetypal patterns with the modern metropolis: the magical powers of earth, for example, are represented by a gnome who works in the Diamond Exchange. Sometimes, the playfulness verges on becoming too clever for its own good: The gnome's name is, in fact, "Noam," and Garet's own name is revealed to be synonymous with "watchtower," reflecting her until-now unfulfilled destiny. For every groan-inducing detail, though, there's another that inspires just as much delight, such as Oberon's spellcasting technique of drawing sigils on a handy stack of Post-It notes.

The one truly jarring note comes from Carroll's efforts to ground the fantasy in real-life history and current events, such as suggesting the villain, Elizabethan alchemist John Dee, "was with Cromwell in 1649... [and] sat beside Hitler whispering in his ear," or linking the events of United Airways Flight 1549 to residual positive magic. It's unnecessary, because the story is capable of holding interest on its own merits, with layers of symbolic meaning draped about an action-packed magical battle, and a budding romance between Garet and a vampire hedge fund manager that the authors use to skillfully set up the second in what will be at least a three-book series.--Ron Hogan

Shelf Talker: An engaging (if misstep-prone) heroine, a brooding antihero and the sly reworking of mythological tropes make for a largely enjoyable urban fantasy debut.