The FBI’s Talent team is back on the job with Kavon and Darren trying to navigate being lovers and partners in the office and at home. Without the imminent danger from magical attack hanging over their heads, Darren hopes their life together will turn out to be the happily ever after he expects. However, relationships require negotiation and compromise, and that’s difficult when the cases keep … coming.
This time the team is called in when a parole officer dies at the hands of a shaman with a violent past. Local law enforcement doesn’t want federal help, and they certainly don’t want shamans involved when they blame magic for the death of one of their own. Kavon and Darren have never walked away from a case simply because they’re unpopular. Unfortunately, Kavon’s instinct to protect Darren threatens to drive a wedge between them. Darren must struggle to find his own independence without undermining the bond they share. And there’s no room for mistakes because someone wants to see the team fail on this case.
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This book clearly shows how much Kavon and Darren are in love, how they navigate their relationship at work and how Kavon dotes on Darren at home. OMG, Kavon is such an adorable grouch! I like him. Darren is asserting himself more and more in his shamanic powers. Bennu is just hilarious. All the members of Talent team kind of grew on me throughout the books. The case was a bit ordinary but well paced and I liked how it resolved. The ending was a bit bittersweet since the rest of the books in the story seem to be following different couples which means no more Kavon and Darren time, but they are in a good place and happy so it’s all good with me.
When book four starts we see the affects on the team of not having more local cops with Talent. I think this is to allow for more Talent teams to be created in the future and to show how integration rather than segregation is what is needed, showing the contrast with how the Egyptians, Vatican, and Native Peoples handle their societies.
They get called to the scene of a cop killing where someone used magic. Obviously, the cops are a little hostile. The interdepartmental politics in this one could have been more of a nightmare with a task force set up to find out who killed Peterson, actually a parole officer. He was supposed to be meeting with Alan Underwood, one of his parolees, when he was killed. We learn he was a dealer with a long history of violence and selling drugs. His coworkers Kyle Hall and Chandler Owen want justice and put pressure on the task force. Mrs. Underwood is the first real clue that all is not what it seems. We finally get what looks more like a law enforcement investigation in this book. The actual take down of the suspect is not on the spirit plane.
We get to see Kavon time walk–it had been mentioned before. The author is clever at putting up roadblocks that will make seeing the past or future difficult to see, or this would be over too quickly. The idea of time is very important in this book, but I won’t tell you how.
At this point, I have to wonder if the publisher insisted on all the racapping of previous books and already established characters. This is not a series that has standalone books, so I feel like this much is unnecessary. I also feel like anyone who can’t follow these books is used to easy reads and maybe doesn’t want to concentrate too hard on anything anyway.
The friction between Darren and Kevon is about walking that fine link of being partners and Kevon being his boss. Darren having access to more powerful magic yet having none without Bennu is a bit of a problem on occasion. Kavon having problems being overprotective of his team even though he knows they are qualified federal agents and good at their jobs. Both are facing the effects of the bond settling into place. The good news is that the emotional bond that I wanted to feel instead of just hear about, finally clicked for me in this book so I am willing to mostly forgive the clunky recaps. The love scenes and displays of affection seemed much more natural and intimate.
This actually has a lot of socially relevant ideas: about opportunities and education for the poor; ignoring tradition if it is no longer useful; and about taking the responsibility to help if you have the abilty/resources to do so. We see Darren start to see how the Djedi centers really could make a difference. This is connected to the POV we get of Assistant Director White in the epilogue to clue us in on future plot developments.
I would rate this 4 stars.