A lively and atmospheric occult mystery with a main character who’s as hellish as she is human.
A half-demon private investigator takes on her strangest case yet in Sfetsos’ fast-paced, witty, and darkly charming urban fantasy.
Destiny Sagar, a “Private Investigator of the Weird Kind,” is accustomed to tracking cursed artifacts, shapeshifters who’ve gone missing, and the occasional hexed heirloom. But when a mysterious caller says, “I need you to find me an angel,” her professional detachment falters. That request sets off a chain of encounters that test both her control over her demonic powers and her faith in the human world she’s tried to make her home. The story unfolds in a well-rendered mix of noir grit and occult mystery. Sfetsos’ world is full of witches, selkies, and other beings hiding behind magical glamours. Early scenes establish Destiny’s duality—her horns, tail, and cloven hooves concealed by jeans and sarcasm—as she battles both inner rage and outer danger. A nun named Sister Trinity appears, and her calm conceals a darker truth; Destiny’s immediate reaction—“A nun didn’t shed ash for no reason”—signals that nothing in this world is as it seems. The uneasy partnership between the half-demon and the possibly fallen holy woman drives the bulk of the story, which thrives on tension between faith and corruption, morality and instinct. Sfetsos keeps readers off-balance with flickers of religious horror, sharp banter, and moments of genuine pathos as Destiny wonders whether she can still claim a soul. The supporting cast is well-drawn: Zenda, Destiny’s mentor and surrogate mother, grounds the narrative with warmth and wit, while Kenan, her erudite partner, provides a gentler counterpoint. The author uses their dynamic to add a romantic undercurrent that never overwhelms the plot but gives it emotional heft. As the novel moves toward its conclusion, Destiny confronts her origins and the blurred line between heaven and hell. The story’s spiritual undercurrents bloom in its haunting final act, where an angel’s quiet greeting—“It’s nice to finally meet you, Horned Lady”—becomes an unexpected exchange of grace. “The way to Hell is paved with souls,” Destiny reflects, closing a tale that merges noir fatalism with hope.
A lively and atmospheric occult mystery with a main character who’s as hellish as she is human.Pub Date: Nov. 11, 2025
ISBN: 9781963355390
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Brigids Gate Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 24, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
The heroine’s 62nd appearance is a hit-or-miss mystery best suited for readers already invested in her complicated life.
Lt. Eve Dallas is sucked into a murder that may well be overshadowed by another crime—and by the news that Roarke, her billionaire husband, is implicated in both felonies in an unexpected and troubling way.
Disturbed from her sleep, Aileen Carville arises to discover her wealthy husband, Nathan Barrister, coshed to death by a heavy amethyst from the collection of his late father, Zip Global founder Henry J. Barrister. His corpse is lying outside an open vault that everyone in the family insists they hadn’t known about until a couple of months ago, and it’s filled with priceless paintings and sculptures and jewels taken years ago from an A-list of museums, one of which—the Royal Suite, a legendary emerald setting—has evidently been stolen once again. The bombshell revelation that Henry must have commissioned the thefts himself leads to two questions—how did the thief who killed Nathan know about the vault and its contents, and what possessed Nathan’s wealthy father to steal and hide all these goodies in the first place?—that are much more interesting than whodunit, though only one of them will be satisfactorily answered. Another bombshell revelation follows: Roarke’s confession to Dallas that he stole the Royal Suite from London’s Tate Gallery when he was still a teenager, years before he turned away from a life of crime himself. Since Interpol is much more interested in the theft than the murder, there’s a real danger that they’ll decide Roarke was once again the thief. So, Dallas faces the double challenge of solving the crimes and keeping her beloved husband out of the frame.
The heroine’s 62nd appearance is a hit-or-miss mystery best suited for readers already invested in her complicated life.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781250414526
Page Count: 368
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
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