Permit Required
An Urban Fantasy Mystery of a City Hall Caseworker, Forged Permits and a Very Old Bridge
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Permit Required
Narrated by:
AI Voice Tessa Ainsley
Buy Now for $16.89
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Narrated by:
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AI Voice Tessa Ainsley
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By:
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Ethan Marlowe
This title uses virtual voice narration
Virtual voice is computer-generated narration for audiobooks.
Summary
In the city of Harlow Reach, the old magic never left. It was simply zoned, licensed and filed in triplicate.
Nell Quarry is twenty-nine, a caseworker at the Office of Unusual Permits on the fourth floor of City Hall, where she issues permits for troll-bridge tolls, haunted-property disclosures, midnight-market stalls and one dragon's hoard (grandfathered, three bedrooms, no pets). Her days are stamped forms, patient apologies and a stapler that bites. She has no magic of her own. What she has is a memory for paperwork that borders on the supernatural.
Then a permit lands on her counter that is perfect in every way, which is how she knows nobody in the building made it. It was never issued. Within days the oldest bridge in the city stops being a bridge, and the first of the city's wards begins to fail. Each failure traces back to another flawless permit with her own initials on it.
Nell is the only one who can read the paper trail, and she does not have to do it alone. A by-the-book building inspector who has secretly never believed in magic, a sarcastic pigeon-spirit who files formal complaints about everything, and a retired chimney-sweep witch with a tea cart join her as the forged signatures lead up through the department, past a smooth director and a very helpful contractor, to someone who has been quietly selling the city's protections.
Every case is a comic permit problem with a real clue buried in it, and every clue is fair, so you can solve it before Nell does. Warm, quick and clean, with dry humor, a found family of misfits and a satisfying ending for listeners who love cozy mysteries, city magic and a good argument with a form.
A clean urban fantasy mystery in the first person, with a fair-play puzzle and a great deal of paperwork.
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