Early Review: Heart of Malice by Lisa Edmonds

Heart of Malice
(Alice Worth #1)
Lisa Edmonds
Release: June 13, 2017
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ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley

The first time Moses Murphy’s granddaughter killed on his orders, she was six years old.

For twenty years, she was a prisoner of an organized crime syndicate, forced to use her magic to make Moses the most powerful and feared man on the East Coast. To escape his cruelty, she faked her own death and started a new life as Alice Worth. As a private investigator specializing in cases involving the supernatural, Alice walks a precarious line between atoning for the sins of her grandfather’s cabal and keeping her true identity hidden.

Hired to investigate the disappearance of a mysterious object of power, Alice enlists the help of Malcolm, a ghost running from a past as nightmarish as her own. It soon becomes clear the missing object was taken by someone with a dangerous secret and an unknown agenda. When her client is kidnapped, Alice must find her and the object of power before a vengeful killer destroys the city and slaughters thousands—starting with Alice.

Review:

Kate Prospero meets Kit Colbana in this new series about Mage Private Investigator, or MPI, Alice Worth. The magic takes center stage in her latest case, which starts out as a search for missing books from her client's library. And I loved seeing Alice use her magic! That green glowy thing on the book's cover? That's her cold fire whip, conjured using her earth magic. She's also adept at air magic (and blood magic, but no one likes to talk about that.)

As if her magic weren't cool enough, she also has a new ghost sidekick with magic of his own. I loved Malcolm! The afterlife in Alice's world seems a little bit like the one in Beetlejuice with long lines and lots of beurocracy. Alice knows why she's being haunted but neither she nor Malcolm know why he was the ghost assigned to her. I wish they would have made some effort to find out by the end of the book, but I'm willing to wait for answers.

I have a few other, not exactly issues but things I wonder about, like "Why did we never see another member of the werewolf pack when their alpha played such a big role in the story?" and "Why didn't Alice ever go back to her office after chapter one?" but I enjoyed the book so much that I'm trying not to hold them against it. The only thing that bothered me is that I didn't love the way the mystery wrapped up.

I did love most of the supporting characters though, like the mysterious federal agent who keeps crossing paths with Alice. I definitely want to read more in this world and see where it all goes.

Recommended for fans of: Jaye Wells, J.C. Daniels, Kalayna Price

    

4  stars