Venom in the Veins (Elemental Assassin 17), by Jennifer Estep

Gin fears someone is gunning for her friend, and chairman of Ashland’s biggest bank. But Gin, the assassin known as The Spider, doesn’t sit back when someone she cares about is under threat.

 
But when she learns the mysterious and deadly Circle are involved, she wonders why - why would they be invested in this? Gin needs to know if she’ll ever hopes to take on the force that killed her mother

Of course, as an assassin, Gin has left some orphans in her own wake… and when confronted by one of those Gin has to face that the pain she lives with every day is also something she has inflicted on someone else

I have to say, in some ways Gin is the worst assassin there is. Sure she always kills her mark but she is kidnapped by her enemies and tortured like every single time. There has to be a better strategy for killing people than being kidnapped by them and then managing to stab them as you escape. This is not a sensible tactic and, honestly, it’s kind of tired at this point - I mean this is the 17th book and we have these torture porn scenes in almost every book. It feels just overdone now.

Especially since Gin is supposed to be so powerful and so scary and lethal. Can we see

that? I mean, all her magic, all her skill with knives - there was never even any real reason why the big bad in this book would be that big or bad. She has no great super powers or great training - we could have had an enemy

I don’t think it even fit with this book. The whole conflict of the book up until the inevitable kidnapping, was finding out what the enemy wanted and protecting Mosely from her attacks. It was even about letting the big bad show her hand and trying to discover what she wanted what she was doing and why the Ominous Circle was involved. And that was interesting and really different- because for most of this book we were in that investigation phase and there was never any real question of whether Gin COULD kill the bad guy, so much as whether she’d have to. Or, perhaps, whether the enemy would give Gin a reason, or an excuse, to do so. Because Gin isn’t a bad person - and there’s a whole interesting conflict there on whether Gin, the assassin, can hunt someone down because she’s PRETTY SURE the bad person is bad, even if she’s not entirely certain. Because she is the good guy and she can’t just kill people because she thinks they’re bad. Apart from anything else she’ll be very very busy in Ashland

And this all worked - and most of the book is interesting and even a little different because of that. Why is the Circle involved. What does the big bad want, why are they supported and can Gin protect Mosely and continue her ongoing investigation into the big bads that ultimately killed her mother. Ongoing with that and Gin’s personal issues these worked really well together We didn’t need another “aargh, I’m captured and tortured” moment or Gin nearly dying to take down her target AGAIN.

Snared (Elemental Assassin #16) by Jennifer Estep

Gin continues to try and unravel the deadly and complex web of the Circle, the complex criminal group that rules Ashland – and seemed to include her mother, deeply enmeshed in its coils as well.

As she learns more, it complicates the connections still further as they learn just how deeply her mother was enmeshed – and the relationships she had then

But even with this huge mystery to unravel, Gin has more immediate crisis’s – a missing girl and a serial killer and not much time to save her.

Since Spider’s Trap we’ve had a definite change of this series. For a while I was concerned that this series was becoming very very patterned – Gin meets a big bad who has New Big Scary Magic and she must fight them and she gets captures/tortured/fights/nearly dies/win.

Instead as we have Tucker and the revelation of the Circle of secret forces who control Ashland. It could have been easy to change “random enemy with super powers” to “random circle member with super powers” and continue that same pattern again. But it hasn’t done that

Oh we have similarities – and that’s not a bad thing. I mean I say that pattern was becoming predictable but I still liked every last one of those books. The fight scenes are amazing, the action amazing. Seeing Gin being the skilled and lethal woman she is is always amazing –and not just her magic or her fighting skills – but her assassin skills; her investigative abilities and, above all, her patience. She is the Spider and it means something – she is lethally patient. And it’s really nice to see that showcased and how her rune, her label, is more than just a cool sounding name. All of these elements are here, all the elements that made Gin Blanco a character I loved and these books always stories I always picked up eagerly.

I also like that Gin’s ultimate strength is her friends. It’s the people she saved. It’s the circle of family she has around her. Gin is made all the stronger and all the more powerful by Owen and Finn and Bria and Jo-Jo and Sophia and Silvio and Rosalyn. Which is why I love that this plot, while touching on the Circle and definitely involving the Circle, also heavily draws upon another woman who has earned Gin’s respect, who Gin likes – and who Gin’s compassion demands she helps. Because it’s Gin’s social network of people she cares for, of people who will fight for Gin and support her because she’s earned their trust and respect. It’s also excellent to see her ongoing respect for so many women in Gin’s life. Her sister, Jo-Jo, Rosalyn, Sophia and now Jade. Gin is not someone who hates other women, even if the signature antagonist for so long was a woman. She has always had female friends, female family and women in her life she’s valued.

We have some racial diversity – with Rosalyn and Xavier both being Black (but only briefly appearing) and Silvio and his niece being latino (again, briefly appearing and in a service role) and Silvio is also the series’ only gay character. I don’t think his sexuality is even mentioned in this book. We have the introduction of Ryan Colson, the coroner is Black who I hope will be more commonly appearing. As a coroner added to the new focus on investigation will definitely help more.