ARC Review: Sin’s Dark Caress by Tracey O’Hara
Author: Tracey O’Hara
Tittle: Sin’s Dark Caress
Release: July 31st 2012
Series: Dark Brethren 3
Reviewer: Kitt
Source: HarperCollins
Purchase: | Book Depository“An ancient darkness has risen from the ashes . . . and terror has been loosed upon an unsuspecting world.”
Forensic witch Bianca Sin has never seen anything like it: homeless teenage girls torn to pieces by dark magic in the cold shadows of the city. More terrifying still is the symbol written in blood on an alley wall–the unmistakable seal of the Dark Brethren.
Teaming up with NYPD homicide detective Lancelot McManus and an elite task force headed by the shapeshifter Oberon DuPrie, Bianca knows her worst fears have finally come to pass. A new war of annihilation is looming that will plunge the worlds of vampire, shapeshifter, and human into chaos–and two adversarial tribes locked in uneasy truce will need to take up arms together to save the children. Trust will be essential for Sin and McManus, as the hunt forces them to confront their deepest terrors.
For the ultimate evil is no longer approaching.
“It’s here. “
Every time I enter Tracey O’Hara’s Dark Brethren world I never know what I’m going to get and it’s almost certainly never what I’m expecting. Now this is a good and a bad thing for me. I like how she keeps me on my toes with an action packed murder mystery, but just right when I got used to the idea that these resembled more paranormal romance than urban fantasy from the previous two, Night’s Cold Kiss and Death’s Sweet Embrace, she goes and changes the game.
In Sin’s Dark Caress, Bianca Sin is an un-bonded Witch working for – and with – Oberon Duprie and his team as a thaumaturgist (the bending and use of life and death energy). Her special skill is called upon when Detective McManus catches a case of eviscerated murdered women with an eerily familiar calling card. Each clue leads these two closer to the truth of the Dark Bretherns involvement and each scene is laid out in bloody detail that’s definitely not for the faint of heart.
I mention earlier that I was expecting a romance to follow along with as Ms. O’Hara brought us closer to the truth and while I did miss it, I find that it isn’t needed. There are times when McManus and Sin flirt with something more, but with all that is happening and the overall dark tones, I agree that it wouldn’t have fit. Blossoming romance hasn’t a place in all that carnage.
Sin’s Dark Caress is a chillingly dark and twisted tale of just how far the Dark Brethern and their accomplices will go to unleash pure evil into the world. I found myself absolutely compelled to keep reading as the tension and urgency rose with each new murder. Sin’s warm, sweet personality complements the gruff McManus’s explosive temper in a comfortable way that only comes after years of lifelong friendship, but I find myself wishing that these two were the stars of the next Dark Brethen novel when it releases next year.
