Review: Unclean Spirits by M. L. N. Hanover

Title: Unclean Spirits (The Black Sun's Daughter #1)
Author: M. L. N. Hanover
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Heat Index: 1 out of 5 (On-Screen Kissing, Off-Screen Sex)
Release Date: December 2nd, 2008
Word/Page Count: 357
Format: Purchased

In a world where magic walks and demons ride, you can't always play by the rules.

Jayné Heller thinks of herself as a realist, until she discovers reality isn't quite what she thought it was. When her uncle Eric is murdered, Jayné travels to Denver to settle his estate, only to learn that it's all hers — and vaster than she ever imagined. And along with properties across the world and an inexhaustible fortune, Eric left her a legacy of a different kind: his unfinished business with a cabal of wizards known as the Invisible College.

Led by the ruthless Randolph Coin, the Invisible College harnesses demon spirits for their own ends of power and domination. Jayné finds it difficult to believe magic and demons can even exist, let alone be responsible for the death of her uncle. But Coin sees Eric's heir as a threat to be eliminated by any means — magical or mundane — so Jayné had better start believing in something to save her own life.

Aided in her mission by a group of unlikely companions — Aubrey, Eric's devastatingly attractive assistant; Ex, a former Jesuit with a lethal agenda; Midian, a two-hundred-year-old man who claims to be under a curse from Randolph Coin himself; and Chogyi Jake, a self-styled Buddhist with mystical abilities — Jayné finds that her new reality is not only unexpected, but often unexplainable. And if she hopes to survive, she'll have to learn the new rules fast — or break them completely....

I’ll admit that this book took me a bit to get into it. I picked it up back in November only to toss it aside after two chapters. Fortunately, I wizened up to the error of my ways and picked up the book again. I ended up breezing through it in a day. It was that good.

We start off the novel with an introduction to Jayné Heller, niece of the recently deceased Eric Heller. Jayné ends up with a fortune, a house, a group of demons out to kill her, and a quickie crash course into the world her uncle lived. We do have one opening scene with Eric Heller before he’s killed but with how much we learn about him during the course of the novel through other characters; it makes you regret his murder more and more with each page. You genuinely feel the loss of the opportunity to get to know this man, an emotion that is echoed through each of the characters.

“You think Eric would have done it this way?” I asked.

“Hell if I know. He wasn’t the kind of guy you could predict. Always something going on in his head. Why? You worried about it?”

“I’m worried about pretty much everything,” I said. “It’s just that you knew him. I think everyone here knew him better than I did. He was just this force for good that swooped into my life when things got bad and then swept back out again. And then I find out about the money. And then you and riders and magic. And… and it just seems like every time I turn around, there’s more.”

“No one knew Eric,” Midian said. “You saw part of him. I saw part of him. The three musketeers saw part of him. No one was in on the whole show. It wasn’t who he was.”

“I guess,” I said.

“You miss him?”

“I miss the part I knew,” I said. “I just regret that I didn’t meet the other parts.”

Hanover does some great character development with Jayné just in the course of this novel. We see her as a person who really has no plan, no purpose, at the beginning of the novel. By the end, there’s a confidence about her that inspires not only the characters but the reader as well; you truly believe she can succeed, that you would follow her into the war.

Aubrey is a romantic lead in this novel and, to be honest, I’m hoping things don’t work out between the two. We discover that Aubrey is still married to his wife, though they’ve been separated for years. They just haven’t gotten around to filling out the paperwork. Personally, I believe that means you or your partner aren’t done. I also don’t like the kind of person Jayné is around Aubrey. Granted, we see them together early in the novel when she’s still wandering a bit aimlessly and that could be used as justification as to why she doesn’t seem to think through her actions before doing them, but, on the whole, I just didn’t like how her character was around him. Thankfully we see cracks in this relationship by the end of the novel.

Now Ex, one of the men who worked with Eric and now with Jayné, I could see him as a romantic possibility. He has a certain strength of character that works well with this group and with Jayné. It will be interesting to see how their interactions change as the series continues.

I heart Chogyi Jake. He’s another of the men who worked with Eric and is now working with Jayné. He’s wonderfully zen, patient, and understanding. He’s definitely the guy you want standing next to you in the center of the storm, if only for the fact that he’ll help you keep your sanity while you’re staring down death.

Finally, I really enjoyed the fact that this series was set in Denver. The author does a great job incorporating the city structure into the flow of the story, along with dropping the names of places to help the reader create a connection to the environment. I had a big grin on my face when I read that the group went to the Rock Bottom Brewery for beers at one point in the novel, having been there a few times myself. I definitely recommend any of their stouts, should you happen to be in the area.