Midnight Magic is the first title in Avi’s Midnight Magic series. Originally published in 1999, it tells the story of Fabrizio, a young servant boy to Mangus, a magician. Ten months after King Claudio of Pergamontio nearly executed Mangus for practicing the art of illusion, Mangus is called back to the castello to solve a mystery on the king’s behalf. Fabrizio accompanies him and tries to help rid the king’s daughter, Princess Teresina, of a ghost that has allegedly been haunting her. Throughout the novel, Fabrizio is caught between his allegiance to his master and his new royal friends. The novel explores themes of fear, power, vulnerability, superstition, and loyalty set against the backdrop of a fictional city in 15th-century Italy.

These same settings, characters, and themes resurface in the series’ second title, Murder at Midnight. Published in 2011, 12 years after the first novel, this title is a prequel to Midnight Magic. In it, Mangus and Fabrizio are accused of being traitors to the king, and they are in a race against time to prove their innocence and find the real culprit before they are put to death at midnight. In a post for his blog, Avi admits, “The tricky part about writing a prequel is to make sure nothing contradicts what I’d already set down: age, appearance, certain relationships, etc. Going back in time is complex. Not so much set in stone, but set in print” (Avi. “Story Behind the Story #58: Murder at Midnight.” Wordcraft Blog, 2018). 

The series’ final title, City of Magic, was published in 2021. Fabrizio, the “street-smart, snappy-talking servant of Mangus,” returns one last time (Avi). This time, the king sends he and Mangus to the city of Venice, Italy, in 1492 to find a secret manuscript. The book supposedly contains the secret of double-entry bookkeeping, which the king is desperate to seize. When Mangus is imprisoned, Fabrizio is forced to navigate the city to find the book and return in time to save Mangus. Leaving Pergamontio for Venice challenges Fabrizio in new ways and launches more adventures for him beyond the bounds of his home.

All three of the Midnight Magic books can be classified as works of historical fiction. However, in his blog posts, Avi asserts that the novels are only loosely based on actual 15th-century Italian history and contain few overlaps with reality. They all take place in Pergamontio, “a city which doesn’t exist at all, though it is somewhat like Naples. Nor are any of the characters based on real people” (Avi). Avi has intentionally obscured the novels’ historical contexts to create a more entertaining narrative world while taking advantage of all the atmospheric elements of historic Italy. He thinks of his books as reading more “like musical comedies, with sets and costumes” than accurate renderings of a particular time period (Avi). The novels also draw upon elements of traditional ghost stories and the mystery genre, providing a familiar narrative framework for young readers. With these elements, Avi’s Midnight Magic Series is in conversation with other middle grade mystery novels, like Trenton Lee Stewart’s The Mysterious Benedict Society and Chris Grabenstein’s Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library, both, like Midnight Magic, the first entries in popular series.