Jo-Jo, skilled healer and beautician and her sister Sophia, bad-ass body disposer and Goth extraordinaire have been a part of Gin Blanco's life since she met her foster father Fletcher Lane, aka the assassin Tin Man. Years ago Fletcher rescued Sophia from a madman on a mountain top, one who was obsessed with owning her and breaking her down. Now that Fletcher is dead, the man, his evil sister and his gang of moonshiners have taken Sophia, shot Jo-Jo and ruined a perfectly fine girl's day at Jo-Jo's salon.

Against a gang of men holed up in their mountain hide out, Gin brings her skill as the assassin known as the Spider, a few good men and her deadly desire to rescue a member of her family; hardly a fair fight.

Jennifer Estep always weaves in a bit of Spider's past adventures, particularly the elements that created her current ties and relationships with the characters in Gin Blanco's chosen family. In HEART OF VENOM, the ninth of the series, flashbacks to events in book one are essential to bringing home to the reader just how important saving Sophia is to Gin. Although her desire to protect is more than enough to motivate her, when you add the connection to finishing something her beloved Fletcher Lane started Gin's desire to wipe this particular scum from the earth explodes into a need greater than taking her next breath.

I have read more than one book where flashbacks are inserted awkwardly like prunes into raisin bread. Jennifer Estep on the other hand slips them in wherever she needs them to be with no detraction to her story. Although the flashbacks in the main narrative can't help but create some level of interruption they provide another tool in ratcheting up the tension underlying the main thrust of the action instead of merely being an informational device.

It isn't often that the ninth in a series provides the same level of excitement and thrill as the first, but with Estep writing it, you can count on each book adding even more polish to the legend of the Spider while giving readers the connection they crave to the world and characters they have been following for years. The Elemental Assassin series is one of the best out there and I think it will be considered essential reading in any future literature class focused on Urban Fantasy. In the meantime it is pure, adrenalin ridden, kick-ass reading for the Spider's many fans.