This is book two of the Seasons of magic series and the summer solstice is fast approaching. A time when light magic will be at its most powerful. Detective Ezri Trenton, also known as the Savior, is trying to balance her work as a cop as well as the magical community’s expectations of her as their prophesised Savior. After the events of the Spring Solstice, where she proved her worth to the Authority, she has now finally taken up her family’s place on the Authority’s Council. A new case comes to her from one of the healers at the Authority. Her fifteen year old son Adrian has gone missing and she is worried that something has happened to him. Following that, three young girls from the ethnic community also go missing. One of them is her partner Jacquie’s niece, which sees her taken off the main case of the missing girls, but able to continue on the case of Adrian.
CCTV recordings show one of the girls on the street, about to cross the road, and then just disappearing! A closer look by one of their techs, shows a woman bumping into the girl just as she disappears. Another video also shows something similar happening and Ezri realises she knows what this woman must be. What magic she is using. The woman hides from view most of the time, but a brother is left behind at one scene and remembers a tattoo she had on her left hand. A tattoo that Ezri knows belongs to the Order of Samael, who she had to fight against just three months ago. Due to the number of children now missing, her chief has called in the FBI, which leaves Ezri with trust issues, since the last case she worked with the FBI, left her with a stone block stuck in her guts, from their FBI liaison, Jamison Taggart, who was working for the other side! She visits him in prison, but he isn’t going to
She finds out the identity of the Whisperer, who manages to disappear, with a child along with her each time. The girls she finds, were all friends and attended lessons at the Authority and also with the assistance of Adrian, a healer still undergoing training. The girls all found him attractive and had crushes on him, all choosing to learn healing due to him! All of them are from ethnic communities and their traditions are to have magic passed down within the family, teaching each new member by another family member, relying only slightly on their children being taught by the Authority. Why these children have been chosen by this Order, is still to be discovered and now Ezri has a new FBI agent to work with, FBI Agent Molly Cartwright. Her first outing with Molly to a nightclub, where she has been told the Whisperer Lola is, leads to magic being used and unable to be hidden from Molly. That brings about an unusual conversation!
Ezri is going to have to rely on others to help solve this case and get all of the children safely home, if that is at all possible. She has revealed magic to a civilian, so there may be comeback from the Authority for that. This case makes her use the skills of her cousin Desmond, both his professional skills as a shrink, but also his magical skills in reading and manipulating memories. This investigation will test her powers and her ability to work with others, without rushing head first into every situation, believing only she can solve it. Some may be saved, but then others will have to die. Another hard set of cases for Ezri and Jacquie to solve and the work of the Savior is about to get so much harder, before the year ends. Another fascinating story of good vs evil in the magical world, whilst mixing it in with real world police work. A difficult subject with child abductions taking place, so some may find it a little difficult to read. I can’t wait to see what happens once Autumn and Winter hit. I received an ARC copy of this book from BookSprout and I have freely given my own opinion of the book above.