Flesh Circus
Lilith Saintcrow
Orbit, Nov 24 2009, $7.99
ISBN: 9780316035453
The Cirque de Charnu comes to Santa Luz although Jill Kismet would prevent them entry, but the compact these Hellspawn refuges live under does not give her that latitude. Still the hunter reminds the Ringmaster and the others of the sufferance rules of engagement and demands her hostage whom she rings. However, someone is even less tolerant than Jill and is killing the performers. Although sympathetic with the killer, Jill investigates fearing the murderer may be one of her colleagues.
The hunter also struggles with exorcisms linked to voodoo practitioners who are dying following the rites they perform. Zombie hordes are flocking to the city so between the Cirque and its death toll, the voodoo mage and its death toll, and the zombie needed death toll; Jill has no time for a rest.
The fourth Kismet Noir fantasy thriller (see Night Shift, Hunter’s Prayer, and Redemption Alley) is loaded with action and starring a kick butt heroine who from the opening scene until the final climax is donkey kicking seemingly every character in sight. Jill makes the tale as she is a hardboiled noir with a soft inside but not when it comes to protecting Santa Luz; in this case from the memories of the past causing havoc on the present.
Harriet Klausner
