I came upon this book by chance and would have dismissed it except for a favorable blurb on the cover by Jim Butcher. Now while I don't think it's anywhere near Butcher's work or fit for my keeper shelf, I did enjoy it a lot and will look for the rest of the series. Luna Wilder is the lieutenant in charge of Nocturne City's Supernatural Crime Squad. When a young were girl's corpse is found floating by the pier, the case falls to her and immediately causes her trouble when the girl's parents, prominent members of a different pack from hers, try to bully her into letting them pursue pack justice instead of following the law. Things only get worse when she uncovers links to a human trafficking scheme. The book is packed with action and interesting characters, but I found Luna herself a little erratic and her penchant for letting her temper get her into trouble a bit overblown. Also, in the second half of the story (in Kiev), I thought the (sometimes bonehead) decisions she made were rather contrived, designed to get her into bad situations simply for the excitement factor and to lead her to the next revelation in the story, and the way she is able to survive encounters with enemies far stronger than her physically, as well as her ability to bounce back from said encounters, a bit hard to swallow. Despite these eye-roll-inducing portions, the action was brisk, the story fast-paced, and the characters well-developed. I was a little confused by references to previous books (this is unfortunately #5 and the latest in the series) but that did not cause a problem following the story. Now I will have to find the previous books to get it all straight, and I'm looking forward to that.

Share/Like this Review?

Please note the description on this page and on the back cover of Daemon's Mark is really the summary to the previous novel, Witch Craft and is not the story the reader will follow in Daemon's Mark.

In my opinion, the Nocturne City series is the pick of the litter when it comes to genre series with a standard-issue supernatural tough chick/badass heroine like Mercy Thompson, Rachel Morgan or Harper Blaine. What has set this series apart from the others is that the stories have been well organized and executed, moving at a steady pace with consistent character development synchronizing with plot points.

As will earlier installments in the series, the action in Daemon's Mark is fast paced and there are some very clever twists. Without giving any spoilers, my biggest disappointment in this book is that one of the themes is Luna coming to terms with is her history of making promises to victims that she has not always been able to keep. This theme is a driving force for Luna and it isn't really followed through on as well as it should have been, it's as if there is a scene missing from the book that would have settled Luna's thoughts on the matter and we didn't get it. This sort of disconnect is not consistent with the author's writing or earlier books in the series.

As with her other works, Kittredge's use of adjectives and analogies continues to be artful and gives her work layers that connect with the reader's senses. A good example is this passage: "You," the woman sitting in the chair said, taking a drag on a black cigarette that smelled like the morning breath of Satan. "I said, are you insane?" She enunciated each word like I might be stupid as well as mental." A clear picture immediately entered my mind and I could hear the disdain in the woman's voice as well as smell the foul, cheap cigarette smoke -- as far as I'm concerned being able to do such a thing is a rare talent that Kittredge possesses in spades.

Overall, I continue to be impressed with Kittredge's style and her ability to spin a yarn. I rounded-up my rating of this book to 4-stars out of respect for the author's skill with prose, it's one thing to write a technically accurate book (text books achieve this regularly) but it's quite another to engage a reader's senses and imagination.

Share/Like this Review?