Customer Reviews

Daemon's Mark (Nocturne City, Book 5)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I actually purchased Daemon's Mark from a local bookstore, read it, and enjoyed it. It was fast-paced and featured plenty of Luna's trademark kick-ass attitude. However, I wanted to warn other readers that the description posted above and on the back cover of the book do not match the actual story AT ALL. There has to have been a serious mix up somewhere. Without giving too much away, the story, as written, was about human trafficking and the sex trade...and much of it takes place in Eastern Europe, not in Nocturne City. There are NO fires and we don't find out any of Will's deep dark secrets. So confused...

While I liked the other novels in this series this one drove me nuts. I'm not usually a total stickler about consistency and sense, but there's a point.
First there was some kind of a major screw-up in that the descriptions on the back of the book and in the initial reviews had not one thing to do with the novel itself. No fires, no selkies. Actually Luna is kidnapped by Russian mobsters and taken with other women, who are also fairly prominent enemies of the ruskie hoods (first big flag), and taken to the Ukraine in a shipping crate. Huh? No food no water for a week? What? There she's placed in a brothel in some town, escapes rather easily really because she runs into her ex Dimitri in the brothel. Again what? So. A women with no papers or ID is running loose crossing borders on a train, going into restricted areas in the land of the petty bureaucrat. Never sees a cop or border cop or anything pesky like that.
The whole thing is jumping around like a bad acid trip at this point. AHHHH. Where the heck is her editor? How could they let all this get by?
At this point my brain was screaming and I had to put it down.
A sore disappointment. I know she can do better.

In my opinion, the Nocturne City series is the pick of the litter when it comes to genre series with a standard-issue supernatural tough chick/badass heroine like Mercy Thompson, Rachel Morgan or Harper Blaine. What has set this series apart from the others is that the stories have been well organized and executed, moving at a steady pace with consistent character development synchronizing with plot points.

As will earlier installments in the series, the action in Daemon's Mark is fast paced and there are some very clever twists. Without giving any spoilers, my biggest disappointment in this book is that one of the themes is Luna coming to terms with is her history of making promises to victims that she has not always been able to keep. This theme is a driving force for Luna and it isn't really followed through on as well as it should have been, it's as if there is a scene missing from the book that would have settled Luna's thoughts on the matter and we didn't get it. This sort of disconnect is not consistent with the author's writing or earlier books in the series.

As with her other works, Kittredge's use of adjectives and analogies continues to be artful and gives her work layers that connect with the reader's senses. A good example is this passage: "You," the woman sitting in the chair said, taking a drag on a black cigarette that smelled like the morning breath of Satan. "I said, are you insane?" She enunciated each word like I might be stupid as well as mental." A clear picture immediately entered my mind and I could hear the disdain in the woman's voice as well as smell the foul, cheap cigarette smoke -- as far as I'm concerned being able to do such a thing is a rare talent that Kittredge possesses in spades.

Addressing some of the criticism in other reviews, it's 100% true that the description on the back cover of Daemon's Mark is really the summary to the previous novel, Witch Craft and is not the story the reader will follow in Daemon's Mark. Likewise, the criticism of Luna being able to cross borders later in the story without papers or some other sort of government clearance is a hole that could have and should have been filled. However, the criticism that the characters weren't fed while being held in a shipping container is not accurate, they did receive expired MRE's and they were provided with water. As I mentioned earlier, my biggest complaint is that I felt at least one scene was missing from the book that would have provided some closure on Luna's feelings about her failings to the victims she fights for and a couple of well-placed sentences in conversations with Will could have also filled-in the gaps on the technicalities of how Luna was able later in the story to cross borders and gain access to restricted areas.

Overall, I continue to be impressed with Kittredge's style and her ability to spin a yarn. I rounded-up my rating of this book to 4-stars out of respect for the author's skill with prose, it's one thing to write a technically accurate book (text books achieve this regularly) but it's quite another to engage a reader's senses and imagination.

I enjoyed the Nocturne series novels and was left scratching my head at this one. We aren't even told if this is the final book in the series or not. Then there is the fact that the back of the book has the description of the story from the 4th novel and not this 5th novel. What? How could such a mistake be made?

This book was just all over the place and too much for me. There were a lot of loose ends. I liked the police stories in this novel but Luna ended up being in Ukraine for most of this novel. It was incredibly out there. The story going from place to place with lots of confusion. What happened to the wendigo Lucas? And what of the sex slaves Luna promised to help and get out. We never hear from them again. Or of the men who kidnapped Luna from California and sent her to Ukraine to be a sex slave. There was too much going on. It wasn't as good as the previous novels in this series. And I am still wondering if this is was the final novel in the series? There is no information anywhere, including the author's own website. Just strange.

This series has thus far been awesome, but I have been reading the Kindle version of this series and I have found errors in all of them. In many of the books, it has been a lack of a space in between words, but in this most recent one, there was a whole line of text so garbled at the beginning, I couldn't even understand what it was supposed to be! The publisher needs to make sure the Kindle version of these books is okay as well. If I was paying less than the actual paperback price, I might expect a few more errors, but since I'm paying just as much for the Kindle version (which makes no sense by the way, since you're saving on printing, paper, binding, etc!), I at least want a version that's readable!

I've just finished this book and the Nocturne City series just gets better and better. This is a writer that can hold your interest from page one and keep it until the last page, leaving you wanting more. I like that her character Luna Wilder is not perfect -- she makes mistakes, she gets hurt, but she genuinely cares about people and will do just about anything to accomplish her job. The plot involves Luna getting involved with the Russian were mob who kidnap young females weres and witches to sell into prostitution and other things. While investigating the case, Luna is kidnapped and gets a taste of what this entails for these women, while also running into someone from her past.

I think Luna is a fascinating character--a cop that happens to be a werewolf, not the other way around. The stories in the series focus more on Luna's wanting to help people and not so much on the fact that she's a were, although sometimes I think she can be a little too verbally abrasive to those trying to help her, probably because she is a were and has a nasty temper. But I like that she seems to be growing and evolving and I can't wait to see what happens in the next book. I like the character Will Fagen and hope he stays around for awhile. I have also been reading this author's Black London books and really enjoyed them.

Short review - if you liked the previous 4 then you should like this one. The formula is the same. Luna opens her mouth and trouble starts. She is the only one who can fix the problem to save the day. Wash, Lather, Rinse, Repeat. Same as the last 4.

I've read the previous four books in this series, and enjoyed them. However, I couldn't get thru this. The writing was disjointed; the plot skipped all over the globe, literally. I read about 2/3's of the way thru, and then skimmed the rest of it. Not one of the author's better books. However, I could have been prejudiced by the disconnect between the back cover and the actual story.

In Nocturne City, homicide is a way of life. At least that is what NCPD Supernatural Crime Squad police lieutenant Luna Wilder believes as she spends much of her time investigating murders. However, she has found solace away from the job in her relationship with ATF agent Will Fagin.

Her current case is nasty as someone brutally killed an underage teen Were. Jurisdiction problems arise between her unit and that of Special Victims who deal with minors flares up. As Luna and her team investigate the gruesome murder, they find an unexpected connection to the Russian mob. Following her instincts leads Luna to a dangerous confrontation in which she knows she will be fortunate to come out alive and with her heart intact especially where the case leads.

The fifth Nocturne City police procedural urban fantasy (see Witch Craft and Second Skin) is an exhilarating entry as the heroine remains nasty to subordinates, superiors and associates in the NCPD (just ask SV Detective Lane), and even worse when she grillins outsiders. In fairness Will has mellowed her a bit since Night Life. The investigation is entertaining as Luna kicks supernormal and natural butt; mostly of a Russian variety. Fans of the series will enjoy Luna's latest lunatic inquiry although once again one must wonder how, in spite of her resolution record, she remains a supervisor as she is as far from a people's person (regardless of species) one will meet.

Harriet Klausner

Although the book description was not the actual content, it didn't matter. This is the first book I read in this series and J enjoyed the pace and the storyline was great. I Liked the way the author gives just enough information on the characters and previous books, without giving away the complete previous storyline. An enjoyable read