Book Review: Pale Demon by Kim Harrison

Pale Demon by Kim Harrison
Harper Collins
Pages 439
Copyright 2011

In the ninth book of The Hollows Series by Harrison, Rachel Morgan, witch and bounty hunter finds herself in a predicament; she has to get from Cincinnati to San Francisco where she is supposedly to have her shunning by the magical community revoked. Problems begin when Rachel discovers she is on a 'no-fly' list and the only way she'll be able to get to San Francisco is by car. Faster than you can say 'road-trip' she finds herself venturing across country with Ivy, her living-vampire parent, Jinx, her pixie partner, and Trent Kalamack, evil drug-selling, gene-splicing, thorn-in-Rachel's-side elf. Trent has hired Rachel to get him to San Francisco in three days in order to complete an old-fashioned elf quest. What transpires is an action-filled, page turner that doesn't let up until the last page.

Rachel is one of my favorite urban fantasy characters. She is a strong, kick-ass, self-assured woman . . . who has plenty of doubts and insecurities. Her past is troubled, leaving her with questions about everything -who she is, what her place in the world is, what her future holds. Jinx is simply adorable, the perfect smart-mouthed sidekick who has Rachel's back, without a question just as she has his. Ivy, the living vampire, is also a tough, tortured character who is fighting her own nature and finally, in this book, she seems poised to step up and claim a life of her own. And Trent? Trent is part of Rachel's past, but it is part of the past that she can't truly remember. He is tough, ruthless, hell bent on getting what he wants, no matter what it takes yet there are layers to him that Harrison is just beginning to show her readers.

Recommendation: Urban Fantasy at its best. Harrison answers some questions in this book, questions that had to be answered, but she also raises brand new ones and they're the sort of question that has me impatient for the next in the series already.