Elaine Cunningham, Shadows in the Darkness

Shadows in the Darkness

Elaine Cunningham

Tor, Oct 2004, $23.95, 304 pp.

ISBN: 076530970X

After a decade on the Providence police force, thirty-four-year old Gwen "GiGi" Gelman works undercover for the vice squad when a bust turns ugly. Several people die and someone must take the fall. Classic example of excrement going downhill occurs; GiGi is fired.

Needing to eat, GiGi opens up a private investigative firm that seems to be doing well, especially when she deftly handles a molester giving up his day job as a Catholic school teacher. Her current case is to find a missing teen. As the inquiries spin between abduction and runaway, GiGi begins to find she stunningly has psychic powers and starts to ascertain that she is not quite human. As she learns more about her elvish genetic makeup, her investigation propels her to apply her vice squad experience as an undercover operator looking into the Underhill gentlemen only club where children perform erotic dances. The inquiries begin to spin into something greater than a missing teen as a conspiracy involving her family ties surface with the club's owner Ian Forest assisting GiGi, who cannot understand why he would aid the apparent enemy.

SHADOWS IN THE DARKNESS is an excellent private investigative tale starring a delightful unique protagonist, an elf. The storyline makes believers out of readers that Elaine Cunningham's realm exists as the author cleverly introduces her heroine via the mystery. GiGi is a terrific champion struggling with her case and her new knowledge about her heritage that is dangerous to her elvish health. Private investigative fantasy fans will appreciate this fabulous opening novel that will remind readers of Jim Butcher's Dresden files.

Harriet Klausner