Heart of Shadows

February 24, 2020
Ancient evils threaten Edmonds’s magical PI heroine in this fun fifth Alice Worth urban fantasy (after Heart of Stone). Alice was investigating a massacre during a gala held by the Vampire Court when things went horribly awry. Days later, Sean Maclin, Alice’s werewolf boyfriend, finds a disoriented, amnesiac Alice wandering the side of the highway, bereft of both her magic and her ghost familiar, Malcolm. Sean’s werewolf pack, the Vampire Court, and a coven of witches cautiously band together to protect Alice as she struggles to reclaim her magic and, with it, her sense of self. Meanwhile, a common enemy with an age-old vendetta against the supernatural world emerges. Edmonds propels the plot with energetic prose while rendering Alice’s amnesiac state with great sympathy and exploring the effect this condition has on Alice and Sean’s relationship. The tangled threads and shifting supernatural alliances make for a gripping mystery, but the frequent shifts in timelines and perspectives add confusion and distract from the mounting suspense. Regardless, series readers will appreciate this return to Edmonds’s delightfully imaginative world.

Felicity Munroe returns to narrate the fifth installment of the Alice Worth urban fantasy series. Alice is a mage-detective specializing in the supernatural. With Sean, her werewolf boyfriend, and Malcolm, her best friend, who is a ghost, she sets out to investigate a supernatural threat, but nothing goes as planned. Each character is strong and confident. Furthermore, Munroe establishes the relationships between them so that despite their diverse backgrounds, they are even stronger together. A number of alliances are formed against common enemies. Munroe makes clear they are fragile and include an undercurrent of healthy distrust, but they are still convincing and effective. She also helps guide listeners through shifting timelines and a complicated plot. J.E.M. � AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine