5 out of 5 stars
Ever read a novel, thoroughly enjoy it and then not know how to review it? That’s me tonight. It may make you think that it couldn’t possibly be all that good if I’m having a hard time reviewing it. But it’s me, not the book, I assure you. I’m just in a weird mood. When I finished this though, I had to restrain myself from running to the book store and picking up the next book in the series. I’m trying to get my book buying under control, but self-restraint isn’t one of my strong points. I happened to win this time.
Kara Gillian just made Homicide Investigations. Just in time for a serial killer to emerge from his slumber to play. This serial killer has a little something up his sleeve. Something most humans can’t see and know nothing about. Kara isn’t one of those humans. She’s a summoner. A practitioner of the arcane. She can call forth demons from another plane of existence. And she can see the arcane trails left all over the corpses of victims.
As if this didn’t make her life difficult/interesting enough, a Demonic Lord (read demon badass) has ruined one of her summonings by appearing uninvited. Worse yet, he keeps visiting her dreams. It’s killing her confidence of summoning demons and sometimes those guys are the only ones with useful answers.
Meanwhile, the serial killer is upping his game, preparing for something big. The corpses are piling up and Kara can’t explain to the other officers why she knows so much about the killer. Add a FBI agent to the task force who knows more than she is comfortable with about summoners, and a girl is up to her eyebrows in a complicated shit storm.
This was a wonderful blend of detective novel and the paranormal. I was equally interested in the police work aspect as I was with the arcane element. The main character was perfectly flawed. I’ve said it more than once, but I’ll say it again, I can’t stand uber badass heroines that make no mistakes.
This was fresh, exciting, fun and interesting. I will definitely be coming back for more.
cupcakesandmachetes 
Nice! It seems like that author is good at making the paranormal aspects and the real-world stuff just as interesting as one another. I thought she did a great job of that with White Trash Zombie too. 🙂
Yes, she continues that in Mark of the Demon. (Or perhaps started it there. I think this may actually be her first series and Zombie is her second, but I’m not positive.)
Dammit…I was sold at “unearthly beautiful and unspeakably powerful being.” Those are like my type! Ack! I had to add this.