By: Kelly Gay
Pocket Books Fantasy
ISBN: 978-1-4391-0965-6
The world has been opened to a new dimension of off-worlders. The Elysian and Charbydons. In other words, what we once thought of as angels and demons or the gods and goddess of old. With the integration of these off-worlders, a policing task force was necessary to control the sometimes criminal activities that crop up.
That’s where police officer Charlene (Charlie) Madigan comes in with her Elysian partner, Hank Williams. A part of the ITF — or Integration Task Force, their job is to deal with the off-world problems at arise with the close association between humans, Elysians and Charbydons. Their latest headache is coming from a new narcotic that’s hitting the streets of Atlanta called Ash. They have to discover its source, a cure for the victims and how to get it off the streets. However, they’ve discovered that the drug problem is just the tip of the iceberg.
Eight months earlier, Charlie “died” and through the miracle of science and the DNA of both an Elysian and Charbydon, she was brought back and now possesses the powers of both. This is turning out to be both a curse and a blessing … more curse as far as she’s concerned, since it seems she is the center of a plan by a high ranking Charbydon to reduce Earth’s environment to one similar to their own dying planet.
I came across Kelly Gay’s urban fantasy almost accidently. While at the Barnes & Noble, I was browsing the science fiction section … always on the look out for a new series. Generally, if I find an author that sparks interest in me, I’ll just pick up their first book to give them a try. Since “The Better Part of Darkness” is Kelly’s first book, I almost by-passed it. Glad I didn’t. This was an exciting read with a lot of unexpected twists in the plot.
I’m looking forward to the second book in this series — “The Darkest Edge of Dawn” which should be coming out soon.
I love that one of her characters is names “Hank Williams.” LOL