It took me a little while to get into this book, I got distracted by another book after the first chapter but then came back to it. It takes a while to warm up to Sylvie, a bit of adjustment to get over her feeling sorry for herself, going to exclude all her friends from being involved. But it quickly leaps into adventure that just keeps speeding on. I ended up having a nightowl session to finish this book, well worth the patience at the start. ( )

This is a kick-butt book. Sylvie is a kick-butt heroine.

When I first bought this book, a month or so ago, I read the first page and put it down. The first page (which I usually read in the bookstore) normally has a big part in whether I buy a book or look for something else. I have to admit that if I had read the first page in the store I wouldn't have bought this book. The other day I was looking for something a little easier on my psyche than Dying Bites, so I grabbed it. I read the first page again and thought "geez, a little melodramatic." It was like that for a couple pages. But I kept reading this time. The book quickly became much, much better. It's like a different person wrote those first few pages.

Sylvie is the owner of an unliscensed P.I. business (unliscensed 'cause she doesn't follow rules, any rules). She's kind of mean, kind of angry. But I actually enjoyed reading her angry sarcastic comments. She's just so damned mad and tough she doesn't care who she's mouthing off too, a god, an erinyes, witch, whoever. You get the feeling, from hints, that she's killed a lot of....beings.

The basis of this book, is that the boyfriend of the god Justice disappears. The god is very upset and can hardly concentrate on anything but finding his boyfriend. He forces Sylvie to work for him. Sylvie has recently witnessed the death of a friend and co-worker, so she's not in the best mood. While she is searching for the boyfriend, crazier and crazier things are happening in the area, as the god is leaking power (that lost concentration thing) that gets taken up by oh, children, anyone with a small amout of magic talent and other things.

Man, I liked reading this book. Lots of destruction, fighting, anger, I think I just needed to read about someone else being pissed off. Kind of made me feel a little calmer. After the first few pages, I enjoyed the narrative, even though it was third person. Sylvie has a former juvenile delinquent office manager (Alex) who is a computer whiz. Most of the book she is "off-stage", communicating with Sylvie through phone calls. I'd like to read more about Alex, she seems like an interesting young woman. Sylvie gets put through the wringer. A lot of people do. There's some "Collateral Damage". People around Sylvie tend to get hurt or dead, doesn't matter if they're important to Sylvie or not. Stuff happens around her, and Sylvie doesn't often back down. Great book. I'm going to looking for a sequel of this book. ( )

Enjoyable series ( )

Sylvie Lightner is no ordinary P.I. She specializes in cases involving the unusual, in a world where magic is real, and where death isn’t the worst thing that can happen to you. But when an employee is murdered in front of her, Sylvie has had enough. After years of confounding the dark forces of the Magicus Mundi, she’s closing up shop—until a man claiming to be the God of Justice wants Sylvie to find his lost lover. And he won’t take no for an answer. And so it begins....

Despite the promising blurbs, it took me awhile to get into this story. Sylvie herself isn't a very sympathetic character, but I liked that her snarky attitude had consequences. Usually, the lead can be sarcastic and impulsive and get away with it, but not Sylvie. People get hurt, and could even die. Fortunately, that seems to bother her, so she's not a complete monster. However, I couldn't understand why the secondary characters would be so loyal to her. Maybe there will be more background explanations in future books?

To be honest, I was interested in everyone except Sylvie. Especially liked Eri, the young punk Fury. And Kevin Dunne, a most unusual greek god who was not part of the original gang. The ISI was also an interesting concept, which I hope Benedict explores in more detail in future books.

All in all, after a slow start, I enjoyed this book. I like discovering new series, and look forward to seeing more of Ms Benedict in the future. ( )

Sylvie is the operator of Shadows Agency--sounds like a detective agency, but she runs the gamut from finding lost things and people to interfering with the work of a paranormal CIA-type agency to behaving like a mercenary. Now after a tragedy, she wants out. But the god of Justice needs her help and won't take no for an answer. Sylvie will wind up finding more than she imagined about her own life as she tries to find the god's missing lover.
There were many things l liked about this story: the blending of Greek and Christian mythology, the constant action, and the magic was little different and darker than much of the current urban fantasy.
But I really didn't like any of the characters, particularly Sylvie, which made it difficult to care about the end result. I'm not sure that the 3rd person point of view was successful--I think it made me feel too separated from what the characters were feeling which led to my not liking them much.
I don't think that I would read the sequel but I might flip through it just to see where the author heads with this world. ( )