A solid noir urban fantasy. I liked that the noir tone was driven by the same thing that it was in the 20s, a meat-grinder of a war + plague. It didn't do anything particularly special—the "twist" was that

the childhood friend/almost-lover he hadn't seen for years was the evil mastermind all along!

. The big clues that

the evil wizard was a red herring (a torn page of names)

and that

it was Celia (the obvious "give me a few days to set this guy up" ploy)

I don't think could have been more cliché, but this didn't detract from my overall enjoyment.