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| Darker Angels |
This sequel to Unclean Spirits is, I think, even better than the first book in the series. In Darker Angels, we meet up with our heroine, Jayne Heller, and her gang about six months after the events of Unclean Spirits. Jayne gets a call from a former colleague of her mysterious uncle asking for help in New Orleans. What follows is one of the best plots I’ve seen in contemporary fantasy lately. Not only is there a great mystery to be solved, but there’s some fascinating incorporation of Louisiana voodoo that had me on Wikipedia for hours after I’d finished the book.
Almost immediately after getting off the plane in New Orleans, Jayne is attacked by an incarnation of Papa Legba and the plot kicks off with a bang (or, more accurately, with a big serpent). Jayne and her crew are swept up in what remains of the voodoo aristocracy with a former FBI agent and plot trips along so fast that there’s almost no time for anyone (even the reader) to get their bearings and figure out what’s going on. Readers who are more familiar with mysteries might suspect that something is fishy about the situation, but the big plot twist about two thirds of the way into the book is a magnificent shocker.
This book was so good that I wished it would have gone on longer. I look forward to more from M.L.N. Hanover and Jayne Heller. I’d write more about this book, but I don’t want to give any thing else away.
On a side note, I apologize for not posting recently. For a week or so, I was rereading old Terry Pratchett novels, which always happens to me after I read his latest. Then I read some fluff that, while entertaining, doesn’t really lend itself to posting. And then NaNoWriMo started. I expect the reviewing to be pretty light until the end of November.