Marla needs help from the San Francisco sorcerers to find the Cornerstone. But she soon learns that they are being targeted for elimination by a crazy South American who calls himself Mutex, and who wants to bring back the Aztec gods, complete with blood sacrifice. She and Rondeau begin a sort of whirlwind tour of San Francisco sorcerers, including an Asian herb magician, a practitioner of sex magic, a cybermage, and more. They have one primary ally -- a gay actor named Bradley Bowman who had to quit the movies when he started having prophetic dreams and meeting oracles. And they have several enemies -- Mutex, of course, but also some treacherous sorcerers, and an old god that Marla manages to offend. Besides the magical tour, we get a nice look at some San Francisco history and geography. And a very fast-moving, well-constructed, and not predictable plot.

Besides the plot, I particularly liked the use of magic in this book -- it is fairly logical, and manages mostly to avoid the problem of magical powers scaling conveniently to fit plot needs that plagues so much fantasy. The characters are engaging enough, but I didn't feel I got to know Marla and Rondeau quite enough -- perhaps because they are not on their home turf in this book, perhaps because character developments for them are being saved for future volumes. We do get a good sense that Marla is not by any means a shining heroine -- she is plenty flawed: overconfident, too violent, only too ready to brush aside others in pursuit of her desires. (It is just that the other sorcerers mostly seem even worse!) Bradley Bowman is a nicely drawn character, though, and so too are a number of less important characters, particularly the old god Marla offends, and a San Francisco historical figure who appears late in the game. This is a nice opening to what could be a tasty series of urban fantasy adventures.