Cal's voice in his head has gotten a bit more persistent since his monstrous half merged more thoroughly with the human (Blackout) but that was to be expected. Living with yourself when you are half Auph, top of the food chain where supernatural creatures are concerned is a challenge at best of times. Although having a Gollum-like voice as counterpoint to almost every thought is odd, it is hardly the most worrisome of his quirks.

Still, things are going swimmingly for Cal and Nik Leandros until Robin Goodfellow hires them as security for a family reunion, a Puck family gathering giving old school meaning to the term 'Pan'ic. Barely released from the plague of horney trickster locusts, Cal finds himself confronted with a living machine too tough for even him to dent. Then Nik's Rom father Kalakos turns up and makes clear that Cal is not the only half-monster in the family. He brings further news of the ancient evil that almost killed Caliban, a machine made partly sentient with reason to hunt down the Rom.

Rob Thurman's books have become favorites. The grim horrific reality of the world Cal inhabits is viewed through a sarcastic lens and softened with the love between brothers. Touching and at times hilarious, yet intensely compelling Thurman's storylines are among the darkest in urban fantasy but she uses that grim supernatural backdrop and the internal struggles of her antihero Caliban to heighten the sense of what it truly means to be a power for good. Any book by Thurman is worth the purchase, but the Cal Leandros series shines, each one better than the one before. DOUBLETAKE is the seventh in the series.