Eve Levine, witch, half-demon and general supernatural
bad ass is a ghost. She jumped the gun a while
back protecting her daughter and ended up dead in an unmarked grave, now
she’s pottering about the afterlife trying to find a purpose and stalking her
daughter. Her whole life has revolved around protecting her daughter for so
long – but there’s nothing she can do but watch in her afterlife.
And the Fates are vaguely irritated with her – because she
does a very good job of being irritating. But they have a task for her and her
very very unique way of looking at things – her ruthlessness, her highly grey
moral code and her determination to get things done. And she owes them a favour
after they let Lucas
and Paige out of the afterlife.
So she has a task to hunt down a Nix – a task that has
previously been given to angels who have failed rather dismally. The Fates hope
someone with her grey moral code may have a better chance against the conniving,
dangerous and devious Nix. Of course, her angel partner believes that the Fates
have other schemes in mind
It also gives her a chance to grow and experience the
afterlife beyond the obsession with checking with Savannah – but does she embrace
her new role, especially since it comes with the ability to influence the real
world – and possibly be Savannah’s real protector – but at the same time tie
her to her mortal daughter rather than moving on with her afterlife.
Storywise, this is an extremely good mystery. Not that
they don’t know who did it – but the sheer difficulty of trying to capture the
Nix is a mystery in and of itself. She can teleport, she could be anywhere in
the world, she flips from mind to mind leaving a path of destruction in her
wake. The difficulty of finding her – let alone capturing and containing her –
is a difficult puzzle on its own.
This involves a mystery that has them jumping back and forth
around the US and Scotland, jumping to different historical murders, trying to
find an edge and constantly surprising the Fates with Eve’s fun, twisty ways of
completely leaving the Fates standing (and bemusement why they just won’t let
her kill people!) as well as heartstopping when the Nix shows she’s a dangerous
quarry to hunt and attacks Eve however she can as well – including through her
family.
The pacing’s extremely good – there were no slow periods
even when Eve was frustrated by lack of information and leads.
