Bar the Gates (The Five Stages of Magic Book 1)

The Magical Girl grew up.

Twenty years ago, Sīd had everything a teenager could want – her parents were dead, she was living at boarding school, and a bearded stranger wanted to teach her the ways of magic. She even had Felix, her cheery ginger sidekick.

That was then.

Now the man who rescued her from a psychiatric ward is dead, and her only friend is the demon who lives in her mind. Thankfully, she can at least throw herself into her work – her mentor’s last email leads to the case of some missing children, London’s suburban fairyland, and the last desperate act of a retired sorcerer. Can Sīd get to the bottom of the case before it devours her? Can she gain the trust of her partner, the powerful and experienced Aaron Simms? Can she ever escape what happened at Dancing Fields?

The Five Stages of Magic is the new Urban Fantasy series from author Jon Kaneko-James. Designed as a series of short ‘episodes’ in the style of a Netflix series, each book can be read either as an independent story, or as part of an overarching metaplot. Perfect for fans of Ben Aaronovich, Benedict Jacka’s Alex Verus, Seanan Maguire, or Craig Schaeffer’s Daniel Faust.