An engaging supernatural whodunit with a compelling lead and a magical setting.
In Downer’s mystery, a no-nonsense private investigator must navigate a hidden world of magic to find a killer.
Former New York City police detective Sloane West is still grieving the death of her mother, Jane, who died in a violent car accident before the story opens. Now a private detective living on her own with a strangely humanlike cat named Bear, Sloane receives a surprise visit from Harold Huxham, a Canadian lawyer bearing news that she is about to inherit a large estate from grandparents she never knew existed. But just as Huxham is about to show her the papers, a gunman bursts into Sloane’s apartment, shoots Huxham in the head, and fails to kill Sloane—only because she kills him first. These bizarre events send Sloane on a voyage of investigation and discovery, taking her to the tiny community of Denwick on Vancouver Island. There, she finds a small number of tightly connected families who own the land in common and, it transpires, maintain a wiccan coven with abundant magical powers. She is told by her mysterious cousin, Dorathea, that Jane disappeared from their community just before Sloane was born, and that the coven had searched for her in vain. “You and your mum were both wrapped in spells strong enough to keep us from finding you. We are unaware of their source or how she accomplished them.” Shocked, Sloane soon realizes that dark magic was behind her mother’s and grandparents’ deaths. Thrust into a strange world of demons and talking cats, Sloane must plumb the secrets of the Denwick coven to expose the guilty party. This novel is well written and fast-paced, and the methodical process by which Sloan uncovers the secrets of the insular wiccan community will hold the reader’s attention throughout. Sloane West is a sharp, no-nonsense character whose skepticism about the supernatural elements of the story adds an element of realism to a narrative that is otherwise replete with otherworldly elements.
An engaging supernatural whodunit with a compelling lead and a magical setting.Pub Date: Dec. 19, 2023
ISBN: 9781642474893
Page Count: 300
Publisher: Bella Books
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.
Using mystery and romance elements in a nonlinear narrative, SenLinYu’s debut is a doorstopper of a fantasy that follows a woman with missing memories as she navigates through a war-torn realm in search of herself.
Helena Marino is a talented young healer living in Paladia—the “Shining City”—who has been thrust into a brutal war against an all-powerful necromancer and his army of Undying, loyal henchmen with immortal bodies, and necrothralls, reanimated automatons. When Helena is awakened from stasis, a prisoner of the necromancer’s forces, she has no idea how long she has been incarcerated—or the status of the war. She soon finds herself a personal prisoner of Kaine Ferron, the High Necromancer’s “monster” psychopath who has sadistically killed hundreds for his master. Ordered to recover Helena’s buried memories by any means necessary, the two polar opposites—Helena and Kaine, healer and killer—end up discovering much more as they begin to understand each other through shared trauma. While necromancy is an oft-trod subject in fantasy novels, the author gives it a fresh feel—in large part because of their superb worldbuilding coupled with unforgettable imagery throughout: “[The necromancer] lay reclined upon a throne of bodies. Necrothralls, contorted and twisted together, their limbs transmuted and fused into a chair, moving in synchrony, rising and falling as they breathed in tandem, squeezing and releasing around him…[He] extended his decrepit right hand, overlarge with fingers jointed like spider legs.” Another noteworthy element is the complex dynamic between Helena and Kaine. To say that these two characters shared the gamut of intense emotions would be a vast understatement. Readers will come for the fantasy and stay for the romance.
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9780593972700
Page Count: 1040
Publisher: Del Rey
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.
On the orders of her mother, a woman goes to dragon-riding school.
Even though her mother is a general in Navarre’s army, 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was raised by her father to follow his path as a scribe. After his death, though, Violet's mother shocks her by forcing her to enter the elite and deadly dragon rider academy at Basgiath War College. Most students die at the War College: during training sessions, at the hands of their classmates, or by the very dragons they hope to one day be paired with. From Day One, Violet is targeted by her classmates, some because they hate her mother, others because they think she’s too physically frail to succeed. She must survive a daily gauntlet of physical challenges and the deadly attacks of classmates, which she does with the help of secret knowledge handed down by her two older siblings, who'd been students there before her. Violet is at the mercy of the plot rather than being in charge of it, hurtling through one obstacle after another. As a result, the story is action-packed and fast-paced, but Violet is a strange mix of pure competence and total passivity, always managing to come out on the winning side. The book is categorized as romantasy, with Violet pulled between the comforting love she feels from her childhood best friend, Dain Aetos, and the incendiary attraction she feels for family enemy Xaden Riorson. However, the way Dain constantly undermines Violet's abilities and his lack of character development make this an unconvincing storyline. The plots and subplots aren’t well-integrated, with the first half purely focused on Violet’s training, followed by a brief detour for romance, and then a final focus on outside threats.
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374042
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2024
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