Surprisingly, I didn't swear off reading after "Micah."
My big book o' Shakespeare was on the coffee table, but the next one up was "The Comedy of Errors" and that's never been one of my favorites. Time for more brain candy.
Renegade witch Paige Winterbourne is back in the fourth book of the "Women of the Otherworld" series, and thankfully, she's *slightly* less of a smarmy know-it-all than she was in "Stolen" and "Dime Store Magic." There are even several references in "Industrial Magic" to just how annoying Paige is, so at least the author realizes the monster she has created.
Someone is killing the children of the Cabals. (sorcerer-led Mafia-type corporations, think Wolfram and Hart) Who better to bring in to investigate than an annoying witch with absolutely *no* investigation experience and her lawyer/sorcerer boyfriend, who's got a hate-on for the Cabals?
Yeah, I didn't buy it either. It made *a little* sense because Lucas' dad is the head of the Cortez Cabal, and he loves his screwed-up kid, but Dad is seriously setting himself up for a fall by exposing a huge soft spot to his rivals.
There's little chemistry between Lucas and Paige, and I think the author did well to separate them for large chunks of the novel. But she piled on the annoying factor, adding bitchy aging vampire Cassandra and well-meaning but campy TV celebrity necromancer Jaime Vegas to the team. An elaborate send-up of Anne Rice-style vamps took up a lot of pages for no good reason.
But there are a few decent twists in the hunt for the killer, the action is good, and the climax is suitably big. I could have done without the big detour into the Netherworld, but cameos by ghostie Eve and werewolves extraordinare Elena, Clay and Jeremy made everything better. Teenage witch Savannah gets a nice moment when she confronts the bad guy.
Ick factor: Jaime has a crush on Jeremy. I can understand why, but I would expect him to have better taste.
Overall, better than "Dime Store Magic," not as good as "Bitten."
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