THE COURT OF MIRACLES

A young thief defies a brutal crime lord in this reimagining of 1820s Paris.

The French Revolution has failed, and the royals have restored order by day. But at night, it is the city’s criminals who rule, forming guilds bound by the laws of the Miracle Court. When famine strikes, young Nina’s avaricious father sells her older sister to the Tiger, the Lord of the Guild of Flesh, and Nina flees and becomes a burglar—the Black Cat of the Guild of Thieves. In time, Nina’s exploits win the admiration of allies from all classes of society. Meanwhile, the poor still starve, the royals poison them to suppress uprisings, and the other Lords cannot stop the Tiger from enslaving women. When the Tiger tries to seize Nina’s beautiful, innocent, young friend, Nina orchestrates a plot to kill him and save his victims, whatever the price. Grant’s debut is crowded with characters and events; the action feels rushed, with leaps of logic and time that can leave readers puzzled. But the narrative shines in its depictions of the gritty criminal underworld and its fierce and resourceful heroine. Nina has olive skin and black hair from her Algerian mother, and several characters are brown-skinned and dark-eyed. The Miracle Court is described as a place where race doesn’t matter (along with social class and religion), unlike the all-white royal court.

A raw, spirited, sometimes uneven tale of adventure and intrigue.