BY A THREAD - Jennifer Estep
Elemental Assassins , Book 6
Pocket Books
ISBN: 978-1-4516-5176-8
ISBN: 978-1-4516-5178-2
March 2012
Paranormal Fantasy

Southern Town of Ashland, the Present

Gin Blanco runs the Pork Pit, a barbeque restaurant in Ashland . Currently, customers are coming to get a look at her suspected alter ego, 'Spider,' an assassin with stone and ice elemental powers. Spider recently killed arch nemesis Mab Monroe, a fire elemental who killed Gin's mother and older sister and more recently tortured her younger sister, Police Detective Bria Coolidge. One night while working at the Pork Pit, Gin's foster brother Finn suggests she take a vacation, something Gin hasn't considered. Yet he is dating her long-lost younger sister, Bria, and Gin will do anything for her since she feels guilty over Bria falling into Mab's clutches. So Bria and Gin go to Blue Marsh, an island on the South Carolina/Georgia border. Bria grew up here under the loving care of her adoptive parents. Her best friend, Callie Reyes, still resides in Blue Marsh. Tomorrow Finn and Gin's lover, Owen, are to join them while vacationing. Today is Bria's chance to reconnect with her friend.

Gin is jealous. Callie knew her sister, shared her life and secrets for years, and Gin knows Bria feels more for Callie than she does for her sister. Even through Bria came looking for her, Gin knows Bria is angry and unhappy to learn Gin's profession. Her cop sister doesn't want to know an assassin, the profession antithesis of her own. Gin expects Bria to leave just like Donovan, a former lover and cop, who turned his back on her and walked away.

Arriving at Callie's restaurant, the Sea Breeze, Gin finds it hard to be pleasant to her rival, but when two thugs enter the restaurant at closing time and threaten Callie, Gin springs into defensive mode. She doesn't kill the two men, but they are still unconscious when the local police arrive. Nothing prepared Gin to see Donovan again, but now here he is, and Callie's fiancé! His attitude remains as dismissive and disrespectful to her as when they were together. Besides all the emotional turmoil Gin is going through, there is a major troublemaker in Blue Marsh, a vampire trying to take over the whole island, and he wants Callie's beachfront property. He spells major trouble when Gin takes down his two henchmen.

If you are squeamish about rampant, unrepentant killing, this is not the story for you, but on the other hand, don't you sometimes just wish someone could take out bad people without all the legal entanglements? BY A THREAD is a fun, dramatic, paranormal urban fantasy. Gin has a flippant attitude, but unlike some who know her, she is confident in herself. An entertaining stand-alone read, BY A THREAD will leave you hanging with the Spider on vacation. Lord knows what will happen when she gets back to work.

Robin Lee