Review: Well-Written Crime Drama in Supernatural Setting
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 15, 2013
The first book in the Adelheid series,Cameron's Law, was a supernatural crime novel about Sadie Stanton, a vampire, who opened her own agency to provide paranormal services to vampires, werewolves, and other species, and is assisted by a werewolf, Madison.When Forever Died, the second installment, took place chronologically after Cameron's Law, but was not necessarily a sequel - the story could have easily functioned as a stand-alone. The POV came from Dakota, the Hunter who works for the Stanton Agency, and was a fantastic mystery-thriller filled with flashbacks of past centuries.InVoracious, the third book of the Adelheid series, "D" had recently been turned into a vampire, and he sought employment at the Stanton Agency, which gave readers the chance to see the main characters from the first two books in a completely objective way.Mia Darien has now released the fourth book in the Adelheid series;Written All Over Heris a very serious crime drama that doesn't include as many supernatural elements as the first three stories. Detective Vance Johnston, the shape-shifter that first appeared in Cameron's law (and is also Sadie Stanton's boyfriend) plays a very small role, and the other characters of the Stanton Agency are basically just background extras. As a matter of fact, the main character, Nykk Marlowe, is human, and she remains human throughout the story.She does not have a problem with the supernatural population of her town, and functions quite well as a detective for the Adelheid Police Department, investigating the usual human crimes...until she is given a case involving a victim who has scars matching Nykk's scars - reminders of her time as the kidnap victim of a particularly brutal sadist. Nykk doesn't like discussing her childhood ordeal, but she is soon forced to face her past in order to solve her case.When I first began theAdelheidseries, I was impressed that Darien didn't rely on gore and sex to propel her series, unlike many other authors in the fantasy/horror genres. After reading her fourth Adelheid novel, I am equally impressed with how well Darien can write a suspenseful crime-thriller without relying heavily on supernatural gimmicks to carry the storyline.All of the books are always followed by a Guide to the Preternatural, which includes information on the array of characters within Cameron's Law: vampires, shape-shifters/shifters/were-creatures, humans with paranormal abilities (animators, necromancers, summoners, and psychics), and lesser-known species (theriomorph, fae & daemons).I can't wait to continue the series, but I am still waiting on a story about Madison. *hint, hint*