I'm on a Paranormal CSI kick lately--this is the second of 3 in my library stack. I'm going to rate this slightly below the Hannah Jayne one, but still quality. There's a lot of mini-infodumps in the story, which isn't a bad thing--they're all about forensics, largely, so it's interesting and relevant, even while being a bit of an aside, but they're not all in the right places. A comment about looking at someone through an SEM is more useful *after* it's mentioned that SEM is scanning electron microscope, as is explained on the next page. Still, it was decent overall. ( )

the book is well written - however I find the main character grating - I have not quite put my finger on why - it could be as simple as that the motivations are foreign - although to be fair that hasn't stopped me from loving other titles - will give this one a break and maybe come back ( )

*This review was originally posted on my review blog Falling Off The Shelf 2.0*

Tess Corday doesn't have your run of the mill job. She's an Occult Special Investigator for Vancouver's Mystical Crime Lab. Every day she sees things that someone like you or me would say is impossible, but to her it's just another day on the job. She's used to seeing dead vampires, but this particular case has her feeling like it's special, especially when all the pieces start fitting together.

You first meet Tess and she seems like a strong character, although she does have her own flaws. She's constantly battling with her past, and it sometimes interferes with her every day life. She doesn't like to get close to people because of her past, and as you read this book you see her fighting to come to terms with her past so she can move on and be a better person for it.

This book kind of started out slow for me, not that it wasn't full of interesting facts and action, because it really was. I just personally didn't really start getting into this one until about half-way through, when the story started to unfold and I just had to find out what was going to happen to Tess and the other characters in this book. I read it rather fast though, only taking two short nights to finish it after my children went to bed. After finishing it I felt much better, and more enthused to set out and find the second book in the series so that I could read that one as well.

I was sad to find out that the author Jes Battis doesn't have an author website, just a few pages on assorted sites but nothing to call his own. I was curious about him and wanted to see what else he was working on but can't seem to find any information on his upcoming works or if there will be any. I guess in the meantime I'll have to read the few books that are remaining in this series.

Overall I really enjoyed this book, and I can't wait to read the others in the series. Don't be put off by me feeling like it went slow for me in the beginning, because it may not be the case for you, as it really was an interesting start it just didn't click for me until later into the book. ( )

RATING: 1.5-ish stars?

Reads like a CSI episode mixed with supernatural elements. There really isn't any originality to the story, world-building or the characters. It was pretty blah... I rushed through this one, I wanted to finish and start a new, more entertaining one. ( )

This one just couldn't hold my attention from one reading to the next, I was often surprised to find it queued up on my eReader, I had forgotten I was even reading it. It's still in there, but I've lost the drive to finish it.