Trickster by Jeff Somers

What to say about this book.  I loved the characters and the story line, I thought the method of creating magic by using blood, or gassing as Jeff wrote it, was clever.  It made a change to have a different method to create the magic. 

I was shocked at the lengths some people would go to to live forever, all those girls that had been marked and snatched and prepared for a big ritual.  The idea that over the centuries, wars and sacrifice's had been done to create major magic.  

The friendship between Lem and Mags is....unique.  I don't know many guys that would take care of each other as they do.  Lem's morals are kind of strict too.  The way he refuses to do any magic that has been gassed by someone else's blood, only taking what he thought was reasonable when he and Mags' worked a charm.  Then falling for a girl who has been marked for a ritual and doing everything he can to save her.  Even though he says he's not a nice guy, he really is.

I don't want to say too much about the plot of this book, I'm very tempted but I will bite my tongue, or in this case not type anything.  I don't want to spoil it for anyone who is looking for something a bit different.

I'm fairly certain that this is the first in a series and I shall be buying the next as soon as it becomes available.