Ashwini, a kick-ass mortal Guild Hunter, is working with Janvier, a 247 year old Cajun vampire. Janvier's liege is Raphael, the archangel ruling New York (who I would snap up in a New York minute if I could)! Raphael's city is reeling in the aftermath of a brutal battle between archangel factions, and Raphael and his consort Elena are attempting to balance among the shifting factions of angelic politics. Ash herself is recovering from her near- mortal wounds received in battle against the forces of the evil archangel Lijuan from the last novel. But there are puzzling half-mummified bodies turning up in the Vampire Quarter, suggesting that perhaps the supposedly vanquished and insane Lijuan might still be stalking the streets.
Ash and Janvier are tasked with investigating, charged to hunt down the killer in the shadows without causing panic in Raphael's war-shocked people. Ash can pick up thoughts from others with just a touch, and while this is a curse for Ash personally, it will allow her to discover others' secrets with stealth. There's also an intertwining mystery with a new designer drug called Umber which raises the stakes of their investigation.
There is a positively lethal smoldering sexual tension between partners Ash and Janvier. They've been flirting for years as they've worked together, but Ash has not acted upon her love and lust for Janvier because of a painful secret that prevents her from allowing herself to get close to him. The pages fairly crackled with their sexual energy. The increasing closeness of Ash and Janvier built the sexual pressure in the tale and paralleled my progressing anxiety in the crime investigation, creating a wonderful crescendo of the tension which ratcheted up in every way.
We've seen some of Ash and Janvier previously in the novella Angels' Pawn, from the Angel's Flight anthology published in 2012. ARCHANGEL'S SHADOWS is book seven in the Guild Hunters series, and is best appreciated after reading the previous six books as well as prior novellas, to understand the intricacies of the well-established world. There are lots of wonderful interactions with previously established characters mixed generously throughout the story. Fans of Elena, Raphael, and Illium (and who DOESN'T love Bluebell?!) will be thrilled to spend so much time with them.
Guild Hunters is one of my favorite series ever. Singh is such a gifted storyteller, and I became absolutely subsumed by this story- gobbling it up as fast as I could, then emerging later blinking in mystification to find the regular world going on around me. The only bad thing about ARCHANGEL'S SHADOWS is that it ended, and now I have to wait eagerly for the next in this outstanding series.
In the wake of a brutal war, the archangel Raphael and his hunter consort, Elena, are dealing with the treacherously shifting tides of archangelic politics and the people of a battered but not broken city. The last thing their city needs is more death, especially a death that bears the eerie signature of an insane enemy archangel who cannot—should not—be walking the streets. This hunt must be undertaken with stealth and without alerting their people. It must be handled by those who can become shadows themselves. Ash is a gifted tracker and a woman cursed with the ability to sense the secrets of anyone she touches. But there’s one man she knows all too well without a single instant of skin contact: Janvier, the dangerously sexy Cajun vampire who has fascinated and infuriated her for years. Now, as they track down a merciless killer, their cat-and-mouse game of flirtation and provocation has turned into a profound one of the heart. And this time, it is Ash’s secret, dark and terrible, that threatens to destroy them both.
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