Sins & Shadows (Shadows Inquiries #1) by Lyn Benedict

Apologies for skipping last week. Personal life stuff…

Sins & Shadows is a great new book, and hopefully the start of a series. Lyn Benedict has created a new Miami, where magic is hidden from most people but Sylvie Lightner, the protagonist, is neck deep in it. She used to be ordinary but now she’s enmeshed in it, despite having no powers. (She does, however, have a dark voice in her head. Cue the scary music.)

At the start of the story, Sylvie’s actually trying to quit her PI business but she gets drawn back into this world (the Magicus Mundi) when Kevin Dunne, the God of Justice, requests her help searching for his missing lover, Bran. Not exactly what she wants to do but she ends up doing it anyways.

There’s new places, great characters, and interesting magical paradoxes in this book. There’s also a lot of collateral damage because Sylvie is not infallible – she’s just a human in the midst of all these powerful beings. Plus there’s a bit of romance in the shape of her ex, Michael Demalion, a government agent.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It’s a great read with satisfying characters and a tight plot so I’ve got my fingers crossed for another book, and soon!

[UPDATE: There’s another book out, called Ghosts & Echoes, making this the first book in the Shadows Inquiries series. — April 27, 2010]