Because his boss is out of town, Cèsar is in charge, so instead of being assigned the complicated cases (see all the reviews above), he chooses a bank robbery that has evidence of witchcraft. Cèsar is a witch, so he thinks this will be easy. That is, until he sees the security footage reveals his brother as the culprit. In a novel about who you can trust, which includes believing his brother just because he’s family, Cèsar must decide if he’ll risk his job (and a memory wipe if he gets fired) just to stay loyal to his only brother, who, in the past, has used blood spells and actually robbed banks.

S.M. Reine never writes characters separated from reality. What I mean is all the bodily stuff Hollywood likes to skip for fear of viewers learning Jennifer Lawrence has hemorrhoids, or something like that, Reine includes. Here’s a funny example:

A woman shrieked as she leaped off of the toilet, jerking one of my Star Wars bath towels in front of her body.

“Oh, Jesus, I’m sorry!” I shielded my eyes, trying not to see the lady who’d been using my bathroom. . . . I backed out halfway before realizing that there shouldn’t have been any women using my toilet at all. . . . It was Aisha, the witch who’d held me at gunpoint in the warehouse. And I’d caught her taking a dump in my bathroom.

I appreciate seeing characters in their bodies because it makes them more real to me, even if they are witches who work for a secret agency that keeps the peace among demons, angels, and humans. I understand the writing is a little vulgar, but it also reminds me that a hot witch in leather pants also needs to poo. I don’t like characters whose bodies are like photographs because it makes me feel bad that mine is like a flesh factory of organic processes.

There’s also something endearing about Cèsar being a so-so witch. He pulls through when it comes down to business, but the guy is allergic to magic, going into full-body sneezes whenever magic is cast or even leaves a residue. Furthermore, he seems to bumble his judgements of everyone, from the women he’s sexually interested in and his work partner, to his brother and other suspects. Take Aisha, for instance: “She beckoned me over, a finger to her lips. I lowered my gun, then lifted it again. I had no idea how I was supposed to treat her now. Good guy? Bad guy? Chaotic neutral, likes she was fucking Catwoman?”

For the next book: In this installment we learn more about Cèsar’s family lineage, which describes witches from way back, including his grandfather, who appears in this novel a frail old man who will destroy anyone with magic. I’d like a story about the Hawke family, maybe even shows Cèsar learning magic from his relatives. A sort of prequel, if you will.