Review by Chronic Betty
The orphaned daughter of a sorcerer and a half-demon, Savannah is a terrifyingly powerful young witch who has never been able to resist the chance to throw her magical weight around. But at 21 she knows she needs to grow up and prove to her guardians, Paige and Lucas, that she can be a responsible member of their supernatural detective agency. So she jumps at the chance to fly solo, investigating the mysterious deaths of three young women in a nearby factory town as a favour to one of the agency’s associates. At first glance, the murders look garden-variety human, but on closer inspection signs point to otherworldly stakes.
Soon Savannah is in over her head. She’s run off the road and nearly killed, haunted by a mystery stalker, and freaked out when the brother of one of the dead women is murdered when he tries to investigate the crime. To complicate things, something weird is happening to her powers. Pitted against shamans, demons, a voodoo-inflected cult and garden-variety goons, Savannah has to fight to ensure her first case isn’t her last. And she also has to ask for help, perhaps the hardest lesson she’s ever had to learn.
I'm a long-time fan of Armstrong, and this book is another strong entry in the series. After 11 books you might think that both the author and readers would be getting a little tired. But Ms Armstrong keeps it fresh. Instead of using one first person narrator through the whole series, she switches things up, using different narrators book to book and focusing on different areas of the supernatural community.
We first met Savannah as a young teen in the third book in the series, Dime Store Magic. She's come a long way since then. In this, her first novel as narrator, she shows herself to be smart, tough, and powerful, even if she's also frequently rash and unwilling to accept help.
The case is a difficult one. A year ago two young women were found murdered in the basement of an abandoned building. Now, another woman has been found dead in the same place. Three murders in a year is a lot for tiny, down on it's luck Columbus, Washington. The sheriff is focused on a suspect, but is it the right one?
There were many likely suspects in this one, and more deaths followed the initial three. Lots of red herrings (or are they?), and lots of racing around. Because most of the book is Savannah on her own, you don't need to know much about what has come before. And when old characters do pop up briefly, you're given enough background to place them without interrupting the flow of the story.
But that changes in the last 60 pages or so. The ending leans heavily on events from Dime Store Magic, which could definitely be confusing for those who are new to the series. It was confusing to me, and I've read it, although not recently. So for old fans a refresher on DSM could be helpful.
Mostly, there's just a lot of stuff going on at the end of the book. I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll just suggest you read carefully. Maybe take notes. One major, dangerous plot line is not wrapped up, and it appears to be the subject of the next book, also narrated by Savannah, due out in July. And there's a major whoa! in the last line, which should make things even more interesting for book 12.
Overall I found this one very entertaining, if a little complicated at the end. I give it a B. And once again I send a shout out to the Harris County Public Library for having such an excellent digital collection.
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