For the eleventh volume in her Women of the Otherworld series, Armstrong
shifts to a new narrator—the 21-year-old daughter of a sorcerer and a
witch, Savannah Levine—and takes the urban fantasy conceit into rural
Washington. Eager to prove herself as a sleuth, Savannah takes up a case
brought to her firm by a freelance PI, a suave, telekinetic half-demon.
Three young women have been murdered in a small town north of Portland,
and there are signs that an occult ritual might have been involved. The
two prime suspects are the town's resident golden child and the leader
of a commune (or cult, depending on whom you ask) for young runaways.
Armstrong writes with page-turningly lucid prose and outfits her heroine
with plenty of pluck, which she'll need to navigate the handful of
handsome fellas who drop in for potential romancing. Despite the occult
angle and all manner of witches, demons, and other supernatural types
(no vampires, thankfully), this is first and foremost a mystery, and a
pretty decent one, with the magic mostly coming in the form of cloaking
spells and energy bolts employed to bolster Savannah's snooping skills.
While this story is mostly self-contained, any number of allusions to
the massive backstory and cast of characters will likely have newcomers
tracking back to flesh things out. Established fans, of course, will
gobble it all right up.
Description:
For the eleventh volume in her Women of the Otherworld series, Armstrong shifts to a new narrator—the 21-year-old daughter of a sorcerer and a witch, Savannah Levine—and takes the urban fantasy conceit into rural Washington. Eager to prove herself as a sleuth, Savannah takes up a case brought to her firm by a freelance PI, a suave, telekinetic half-demon. Three young women have been murdered in a small town north of Portland, and there are signs that an occult ritual might have been involved. The two prime suspects are the town's resident golden child and the leader of a commune (or cult, depending on whom you ask) for young runaways. Armstrong writes with page-turningly lucid prose and outfits her heroine with plenty of pluck, which she'll need to navigate the handful of handsome fellas who drop in for potential romancing. Despite the occult angle and all manner of witches, demons, and other supernatural types (no vampires, thankfully), this is first and foremost a mystery, and a pretty decent one, with the magic mostly coming in the form of cloaking spells and energy bolts employed to bolster Savannah's snooping skills. While this story is mostly self-contained, any number of allusions to the massive backstory and cast of characters will likely have newcomers tracking back to flesh things out. Established fans, of course, will gobble it all right up.