Devlin has arrived on Summer where she expects to do nothing more than keep watch over Cha and Dancer. However, even before the two arrive, she’s found trouble of a different kind. Even though the people of Summer are leaving as the world begins a long, inhospitable descent into winter, there’s still time for deceit, lies and murder.

She has other news for Cha and Dancer as well, and she’s not really certain how well they’ll like her new plans.

 

 

The Review:

I had this on my TBB list for awhile, and finally got around to buy it. And since it is Lazette Gifford, I started reading it directly. And I am glad I did.

This is the second book in the Devlin’s Team series, and it hooked me from the start. It was fascinating to see how a world was slowly closing good for winter, which would last for a loong time. The reasons that it was closing down, felt well researched, and believable. It was also interesting to get a glimpse on how the society worked in the more civilized areas of the IWC universe.

It was interesting to meet Devlin, Dancer and Cha again. I really liked how their friendship deepend, and in the case of Cha and Devlin took an unexpected turn into romance. I also liked how they became friends with some of the remaining locals, and how they helped each other out when the need arose.

At the core, this was a mystery. I really enjoyed following Devlin and her friends as they worked on solving the mystery. As they did, they encountered corrupt politicians, honest bureucrats, and bewildered locals. It was intresting to see how they slowly learned who they could trust, who they couldn’t trust.

The biggest problem I had with this book, was  the ending.  It didn’t end on a cliff hanger, but one big plot thread  wasn’t solved. But maybe that is part of the set up for the next book.  Another, more minor thing that annoyed me was  the romance subplot between Devlin and Cha, while very sweet, didn’t add anything to the story. It felt more like the author had added it as an afterthought.

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The Particulars: Science Fiction, A Conspiracy of Authors, available as e-book

The Source: Purchased at Kobo

The Grade: B+