Ilona Andrews, Magic Bites

Magic Bites

Ilona Andrews

Ace, Apr 2007, $6.99

ISBN: 0441014895

In the near future, the world is a very different place as magic has returned but it ebbs and flows. When it flows, technology fails, but when it ebbs technology works. Kate Daniels belongs to the Mercenaries Guild, taking care of magical problems that organizations won't touch. Her mentor Greg Feldman wants her to join his group, the Atlanta chapter of the Order of Knights of Merciful Aid, but she refuses as she prefers being a lone wolf.

When Greg is killed, she goes to the Order to tell them she wants to find her mentor's killer. They tell her she can perform a sidebar investigation under their rule and provide her the information they know and the pictures they have. The crime pictures show the same entity murdered Greg and a vampire. It looks like a shape-shifter is the culprit, which implies hostilities are erupting between that species and the Masters of the Dead, necromancers who control the mindless vampires. Kate has a hunch that someone is orchestrating things behind the scenes to cause a war between the two wary adversaries; but she has no idea who has the power to pull off such a diabolically sly ruse.

Ilona Andrews is the newest fantasy magician who makes her world seem plausible yet entertaining; mindful of Rosemary Edghill and Mercedes Lackey. The heroine is an enigmatic interesting individual who learns over her investigation that she is capable of trusting others as well as gaining the confidence of Pack King Curran while still keeping much of what she learns to herself. MAGIC BITES is an enchanting paranormal whodunit that takes the supernatural into new natural directions.

Harriet Klausner