Nikki Glass takes her job as a private detective very seriously, especially when a call from a client cuts short an evening with yet another banal blind date.

Emmitt Cartwright has hired her to track down his wife Maggie and investigate the cult she seems to have joined. After weeks of legwork she has been able to confirm his wife's location and develop a dossier on the other inhabitants of the house. Emmitt claims Maggie has called and begged him to help free her, that she will be leaving the gate to the cult house open that night. Emmitt's call is to ask Nikki to join him, to make certain they can win his wife free.

Although the night is dark and icy and her gut is telling her this is a very bad idea, her alternative is to continue the date with Mr. Snooze so Nikki agrees to meet Emmitt and help free Maggie.

Just as Maggie promises the gate is left open but Emmitt is nowhere in sight. As she drives toward the house, a figure leaps in front of the car, too late for her to avoid him. It's Emmitt, and he is most definitely dead. Bleeding, broken and in need of medical help, Nikki is carried from the accident to the main house and locked in a basement room. No ambulance, no first aid, just an interrogation from Anderson Kane (the head of the cult) and an accusation of murder. As she begins to tell her story about how she came to be on the property she realizes just how full of holes it is, particularly as the cult members are acting like Emmitt was a good friend of theirs rather than a desperate husband of one of their members. Oddly enough, Nikki's horrible wounds begin to heal on their own, As Nikki realizes the cult members also exhibit powers beyond the ordinary, it becomes clear that her life has changed forever.

Jenna Black's new urban fantasy book has an interesting slant on the persistence of ancient deities in the modern world. Main character Nikki's reaction at being thrown into the deep end of the crazy pool rings true, and Black does an excellent job of keeping the reader guessing about who exactly are the good guys and bad guys for a good chunk of the book. Although parts of the storyline did not appeal to me directly, the book was well-written and I would still recommend it as a new take on urban fantasy. DARK DESCENDANT is book one in the Descendant Series.