Sins & Shadows by Lyn Benedict

The only good thing about gods is that they prefer their realm to ours.

Lyn Benedict also writes political-intrigue fantasy under the name Lane Robins. I learned this before starting Sins & Shadows, and I've been wondering ever since whether I'd have figured it out if I hadn't known. The setting, plot, and prose style are completely different from the Lane Robins books, but there are some echoes in the general themes: love, vengeance, and the havoc that gods wreak when they meddle in mortal affairs.

Sins & Shadows introduces us to Sylvie Lightner, nicknamed "Shadows," who works as a sort of paranormal P.I. After a satanic cult kills one of her friends, Sylvie is about to call it quits. Just as she's firing her assistant and packing her office, s... Read More

Ghosts & Echoes by Lyn Benedict

I’ve never met a Lyn Benedict/Lane Robins book I didn’t like, but Ghosts & Echoes is the best of her work to date. There’s a ton of urban fantasy out there, ranging from the stellar to the egregious, but this is the kind of book I like to wave at people and say, “This is what urban fantasy can be.”

Sylvie “Shadows” Lightner is back in Miami, recovering from what she calls the “Chicago clusterf*ck” that took place in the previous novel, Sins & Shadows. Two new cases fall into her lap: a string of magically-enhanced burglaries, and a shell-shocked Chicago cop who carries the ghost of a dead man within him. Neither is as straightforward as it sounds, of course. The burglars’ trail leads Sylvie to some sinister magical transactions that threaten the life of someone close to Sylv... Read More

Gods & Monsters by Lyn Benedict

A subplot in Ghosts & Echoes involved Sylvie and a werewolf, Tatya, looking into the disappearance of a young woman in the Everglades. Lyn Benedict picks that thread back up at the beginning of Gods & Monsters. The woman has been found dead in the swamps, along with four others. Sylvie doesn’t want to get personally involved in this case, so she calls the police — but when the police move the bodies, one explodes into flame and the other four shift into animals. Three policemen are killed and some injured, including Adelio Suarez, a cop with whom Sylvie has an uneasy alliance. Now she’s involved whether she wants to be or not.

A many-layered plot unfolds, featuring a sorcerer with a diabolical scheme and a god trying to re-awaken. Sylvie has to piece together what’s going on and how the women are involved, all t... Read More