Melina Markowitz is not your ordinary girl. She's hospital clerical clerk by night, and a delivery girl for the paranormal by day. She is an Arcane( Cane) in a Mundane ( Dane) world due to a life altering accident as a toddler. Or as she puts it....
" Three-year-old me decides to take a quick dip in the cool, refreshing pool with out telling my mama and I end up with a crappy job toting and carrying for werewolves, vampires, skinwalkers ,and the occasional chupacabra."
It's tough to be the middle girl when you don't feel you belong in either world, but someone has to do it. Plus she has her OTHER side job of teaching martial arts in the local dojo. It is her true home and happiness.
The downside of working the paranormal delivery circuit is there is no room for error or you could literally become someones lunch or plaything. So when men in ninja attire fall out of a tree, give Melina a bloody lip, and steal her envelope in mid delivery she knows she needs to recover it fast.
Now Messenger turned P.I, Melina follows the ninja trail to a Taoist temple, where they not only plant beautiful zen gardens but ravenous talisman controlled Chinese vampires known as kiang shi.The kiang shi are tearing gang members limb to limb, intent on collapsing all gang and turf infrastructure for their own evil agendas.
As it normally goes in nosy girl protagonist stories Melina is caught in many wrong places, at many wrong times. Her snooping catches the eye and possibly heart of Officer Ted Goodnight. She quickly tries to push him away to protect her own heart and his life.
As more innocent victims fill the ER during Melina's shifts ,and her fellow Canes remain stubbornly neutral, she strikes out on her own to get answers . She is blindsided by heartbreaking circumstances, and learns the lonesome middle is longer a place to hide. It is time to trust people and take a stance for her city.
Some of the one liners in this book had me laughing out loud, and then in the same hand the depth of Melina's feelings of isolation really struck a cord with me. Rendahl's wide arc of human emotion made this story not as super predictable as most. That was a nice factor, even when Melina was being a brat. :)
3.5 out of 5 wooden stakes
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