CITY OF SHADOWS

A group of demon hunters must uncover a long-buried truth to save their kingdom.

The fourth book in the War of Banes and Demons series finds the demon slayers, or demonbanes, on a three-pronged mission to save the city of Shirath. Master Tarix and her underlings (including the well-meaning but clumsy Ratal) know human masters control the fiends, and they search the surrounding forests for the evil puppet masters. Demonbanes Garet and Salick, meanwhile, search the far north, where they battle a dragon attacking a local village. The creature, however, is no ordinary dragon: “crests sweeping back from an elongated skull, a beak, not bird-like but leathery, thrusting forward. Garet looked down and nodded. ‘That’s what I saw, a demon’s head on that dragon’s body, just as it all came together. Have you ever heard of a demon—or any other creature—that was both one and many at the same time?’” Lastly, King Trax remains in Shirath but is forced to join the fray in a desperate attempt to keep his pregnant wife, Lysere, safe from the escalating attacks. Luckily, the Shirath forces bring new strategies to fight the overwhelming fear with which demons paralyze their prey, including stone masks that help block the terror. With his signature electric battle scenes and rich descriptions of even the most twisted creatures, Harkness whips this installment into a frenzy that ends on a whopping cliffhanger. All the individual threads are on the verge of being tied together, which one can only assume will happen during the series’ conclusion in book five. But lovable characters and an adrenaline-pumping plot help make this installment shine all on its own.

A sharp, involving adventure with twists that will keep even regular series readers guessing.