Note: As Book 3 in this series, it works best if you’ve read the previous books. I wouldn’t recommend reading this as a stand alone.

Cisco Suarez, dead necromancer, and Milena (Cisco’s dead sister’s best friend) team up to take out some serious foes. It doesn’t help that a SWAT team lead by his former best friend Evan Cross is breathing down his neck as well. As the Miami heat rises, so do the stakes. It’s only been 3 weeks since Cisco awoke from his zombie status (Book 1) to find that 10 years of his life had gone by as well as losing his closest family members.

This wasn’t my favorite of the series even though some significant things happen in this book. I think this is because Cisco seems to have a new power every other chapter. I like him complicated and desperate, as he was in Book 1, yet here he’s getting his feet under him (which is good) but he has new skills that give him the upper hand one too many times.

Setting that aside, I really liked that things have gotten messy between him and his friend Evan. The SWAT team is even hunting Cisco! Of course, this means things are strained between Cisco and his ex-girlfriend Emily (who is Evan’s wife now). Fran, Emily’s daughter, also plays an important role in this story, tugging on Cisco’s heart strings.

There’s a covey of magic users that want something Cisco has and one member of the covey (a paper mage) comes pretty close to taking Cisco out more than once. Speaking of that coveted object – the Horn of Subjugation – it comes with the Spaniard, who has glowing red eyes. The Spaniard is easily one of my favorite characters. In some ways he reminds me of an evil-held-in-check Bob the Skull from The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher.

This book pulls in creatures from the Nether and Aether – the Silvans and the Fae. I am still impressed in how Finn keeps tying in various cultures and mythologies. Miami is the perfect place to center this series as it’s so full of people from all over the world. I’m glad to see that he continues to draw on that. A few other mythical beings are tossed in like Throok the Minotaur, mermaids, and a satyr.

All together, it was enjoyable even if I got a little battle fatigue here and there. The big series arc mystery continues to interest me and the ending here left some questions answered while opening up a whole new set of questions. Looking forward to Book 4.

I received a free copy of this book.

The Narration: Neil Hellegers continues to impress. Of course, he does Cisco justice in this book once again. As more creatures are pulled into the series, Hellegers has to come up with more unique voices. He certainly rises to that challenge and delivers. Great narration! ( )

Who was your favorite character and why?
I have to say the 'Spanaird' continues to be one of my favourite characters and in this particular story I really liked Throok, I found him to be a genuine and lovable character.

What about Neil Hellegers’s performance did you like?
Neil continues to do a great job narrating. However, as an Australian, I do find his Australian accent a little challenging to listen to, but in the scheme of things he does an ok job. Perhaps that is how we sound to non-Australian's. Neil really brings all the characters to life and I found his tone and inflictions gave me a feeling of empathy for many of the characters.

Any additional comments?
Another great story by Domino Finn. The story continues to evolve and is always interesting and the characters continue to grow and develop. At times I felt Cisco really did have his head in the sand, especially where Emily was concerned and there were many times in the book that I wanted him to wake up. However, things pan out in a great way that I didn't see coming. I look forward to listening to the next book in the series to see where the story goes from here and how much further the characters develop. ( )