School Library JournalGr 4–7—This novel is based on an interesting premise, but its realization falls short of its potential. Sacha Kessler lives in an alternate history in which people are capable of magic, which is illegal, and policed by Inquisitors, whose mission is to stop it. He can see magic is being worked, earning him the position of assistant apprentice to the foremost Inquisitor in New York City, an unlikely position for a Jew. Shortly after he begins his prestigious class-defying job, he discovers a dybbuk, a creature from Jewish folklore, has been set loose and he must stop it from killing Thomas Edison. The Inquisitor's Apprentice has the innocent appeal of a "Hardy Boys" novel set in 19th-century New York (with magic).
