Archaeologist and cable TV host Annja Creed is chasing monsters in France for a future episode of her "Chasing History's Monsters" show. Annja is researching local history in the town of Lozere regarding the legends of La Bete, a man-killing beast who roamed the French countryside in the 18th century and was rumored to be responsible for a good number of deaths during her reign of terror.

Annja is soon embroiled in a power struggle between several different factions that are trying to find the final resting place of La Bete for reasons of their own. They include a group of lethal monks desperate to protect the age-old secrets of their order; a half-insane millionaire who's searching for buried treasure and imagines himself the leader of a present day "Wild Hunt," made up of a gang of teenage boys who, in a drug induced state, run "the Hunt" through the countryside in Berserker- like fashion; and a 500-year-old wizard who's trying to assemble all the pieces of the legendary sword of Joan of Arc, which was broken and scattered during her execution. Whew! That's a lot for a girl to deal with! Annja , determined heroine that she is, must unravel the secrets of the past, while avoiding a large number of murderous villains all vying to be first in line to slit her throat.

There really is a lot going on here; maybe too much. Hot chicks with super powers are the new thing and sometimes they can be a lot of fun, but Annja was not a believable character to me. The plot seemed to be on a runaway track a good deal of the time. I kept thinking of Peter Straub, who liked to throw everything but the kitchen sink into his books. The conclusion to the mystery surrounding the beast was really clever but unlikely. Still, it was nothing I'd ever read before, so I was entertained by it. The monks...not so much. They reminded me a little too much of the secret order in Da Vinci, killing to protect their secrets. And Archer's monks had secrets that really didn't seem to be all that earth-shaking after a couple of hundred years. Nothing that would shock the world, anyway. And just where do all these monks get their assassin's training? While parts of ROGUE ANGEL: DESTINY are mildly entertaining, I didn't enjoy it.