The Better Part of Darkness ( Charlie Madigan 1) by Kelly Gay

Hello to all,

          For my choice of urban fantasy book to share with you today, i've picked a new author for me Kelly Gay and the first book of her Charlie Madigan's series: The better Part of Darkness.

Happy reading!

Publisher: Pocket Books fantasy

Publication: 2009

ISBN: 1439109656

Genre: urban fantasy
Violence: strong
Language: normal
sex: none
Public: 18+

Source: bought

Short description from goodreads :

 Atlanta: it's the promised city for the off-worlders, foreigners from the alternate dimensions of heaven-like Elysia and hell-like Charbydon. Some bring good works and miracles. And some bring unimaginable evil....

Charlie Madigan is a divorced mother of one, and a kick-ass cop trained to take down the toughest human and off-world criminals. She's recently returned from the dead after a brutal attack, an unexplained revival that has left her plagued by ruthless nightmares and random outbursts of strength that make doing her job for Atlanta P.D.'s Integration Task Force even harder. Since the Revelation, the criminal element in Underground Atlanta has grown, leaving Charlie and her partner Hank to keep the chaos to a dull roar. But now an insidious new danger is descending on her city with terrifying speed, threatening innocent lives: a deadly, off-world narcotic known as ash. Charlie is determined to uncover the source of ash before it targets another victim -- but can she protect those she loves from a force more powerful than heaven and hell combined?

My opinion:

          The Better part of Darkness is an original story; I enjoyed seeing a main heroine who was also a mom; it‘s the first time I come across this kind of character and I loved it. I was also intrigued but her partner a male siren.  The fact that the non human come from other dimensions connected to our world is also well thought.

Now I must also say that’s a dark urban fantasy book more than what I expected. The rhythm is rapid, action packed but around that all is manipulation, treachery, secret organisation. Charlie Madigan is a cop, especially selected to be part of the police dealing with off-worlders, species non human coming from a different dimension, like all members of said police she has followed an intensive and really hard training, physical but not only that. She had to learn the different species, their history, political system, weaknesses and powers etc, then following another rule, she was partnered with an off-worlder officer to take the better of both world in a way since this partner has a deeper knowledge of these other dimensions and inhabitant. The police have special equipment but still have to act with a lot of diplomacy .Why? Because a lot of treaties have been signed between the political hierarchies of the different dimensions. Some groups even have their own laws by which the police must abide. So in the end, the officer like Charlie have and harder work even when they have a culprit depends on the kind and power of his species he could go free, really frustrating.

I spend a good time with this book, Kelly Gay writing style is captivating and while it was not what I intended I’ve read this book without break however it was not the book I needed at the moment. It was a bit too dark and I was a bit disappointed: I didn’t get to see the power of Hank the siren, and the ending is really not an happy one. I would not mind reading the next book and I will perhaps love this series but at the moment I only liked this  one I need to see if the author will keep the dark part in the rest of the series or not.

A really interesting and good book to recommend to the fan of dark urban fantasy.

Score:  3/5

Disclaimer: All opinions are my own and no compensation was received in exchange for this review

Challenges:

Book read for the 2012 TBR reading

 

This book enter in the Romance and Me Challenge