Book Review: Sins of the Angels

By Sandy Amazeen Sep 14, 2011, 18:07 GMT

A detective with a secret lineage. An undercover Hunter with a bullet-proof soul. And a world made to pay for the sins of an angel... Homicide detective Alexandra Jarvis answers to no one. Especially not to the new partner assigned to her in the middle of a gruesome serial killer case-a partner who is obstructive, irritatingly magnetic, and arrogant as hell. Aramael is ...more

With the city coping with a serial killer who, after carving his victims open leaves them carefully posed, the last thing homicide detective Alexandra Jarvis wants to do is train a rookie partner. Especially Jacob Trent who appears to have little grasp of proper police procedures, oozes attitude and worse, Jarvis swears she has seen wings on the man. Despite all his objections, Aramael aka Trent is a heavenly Power sent to hunt his brother Caim, a Fallen Angel who wants to go home and barring that, to cause as much destruction as possible. Not only is Aramael forced to play subservient to Jarvis, he is charged with protecting her as well which really rubs the wrong way as she is a Naphil, a descendent of the Grigori.

As the killings escalate, Aramael and Jarvis discover the sparks between them could turn into something monumental, information Caim uses to his advantage with devastating results. Five thousand years of planning have gone into the careful orchestration of events about to unfold and no one, not even the One herself can be certain how the future will unfold, especially with an unpredictable force on the loose.

Poitevin’s debut fantasy full of angels and threats of the apocalypse starts with a nice brisk pace that is maintained throughout. With her complicated history masked by a take-charge attitude, Jarvis’s character is easy to warm up to and it is easy to see how she could think she is going quietly crazy. The sparks flying between Aramael and Jarvis are fun to watch while Caim makes a convincing, cunning antagonist with self-serving reasons for all he does. The climax while not exactly a cliffhanger will leave readers feeling a bit pissed off at what happens to one of the protagonists yet provides plenty of directions for the sequel to pursue. This is a new series to watch.