Gin's at it again, though to be fair she tried really hard to lead a 'peaceful'(ish) life. Sadly after two bozos find it thrilling to try and rob the Pork Pit, well things escalate to the point where she doesn't a choice. Not if she wants to live. And get revenge.

Interestingly enough Detective "Clean Cut" Donovan Caine is the character I had the most issues with. I understand he has morals, integrity, yadda yadda. Okay fine. How in the name of daisies did he last as long as he did in Ashland? I can not, for the life of me, fathom of it! To be honest I spent a good deal of the book wondering if he was too good to be true. I kept waiting for the other foot to drop so to speak. I suppose the fact he was rigidly righteous and unrelenting was the other shoe.

I felt bad for Gin, but also rather annoyed. She knows Donovan won't change, just as he knows she can't change her past (or present). The two of them are playing at a possible future together. I liked Owen better. He was a reasonable guy. He understood that not everyone, especially for someone who went through the hell Gin went through, can remain spotless.

Estep's wit and verve are in full swing, with Gin just as smart-ass as I remembered her. I like that about Gin, she doesn't let the situation crack her. Its a trend in urban fantasy heroines I really appreciate--makes it much more believable when they're surviving brutal physical violence. Sophie, the goth dwarf who works with Gin, was her usual taciturn self. I think for her it was as close to a relief as she would allow that Gin didn't just become Suzy Homemaker. Fletcher wanted a more peaceful life for Gin, but I doubt even he expected her to just let things rest when innocent folks are in trouble. Or when given information about Mab that could help to avenge her family.

The third book, Venom, is due out at the end of September and the fourth book, Tangled Threads, is due out May 2011. I suppose, if I have to wait, I will. But honestly I want Gin back quickly; there just isn't enough assassins in my reading diet right now. ( )

I am really enjoying listening to these on audiobook! ( )

A good story maimed by lazy editing and poor production standards

When I read "Spiders's Bite", the first book in this series. last September I thought the series showed promise because, Gin Blanco, the Elemental Assassin of the title, was refreshingly amoral and because Lauren Fortgang's narration brought the book alive.

"Web of Lies" has some good things going for it - if it hadn't I would never have made it to the end of the book because it also has a lot of things wrong with it.

There is a basis for a really good series here. The characters continue to develop. We learn more about them through well-handled back-story and by seeing how they behave under physical and moral pressure. Estep makes sure that Gina Blanco is not one-dimensional, giving us just enough reasons to care about her to want her to win and to explain the loyalty others show her, while making her just broken enough to do the violent things that are asked of her.

The cast of characters continues from the previous novel and new ones are introduced that you know you will enjoy learning more about. The goody-two-shoes Detective male interest of the first novel gets what he deserves.

There is clearly a book-spanning story arc and it's intriguing enough for me to want to see how it plays out.

The plot for the novel, a basic "Magnificent Seven" set up, is well handled and has enough sub-plots to keep me interested and it's set in spectacular places that are well described.

The dialogue works well. The actions scenes and the violence are convincing and engaging without being pornographic and the magic has enough constraints and consistency to make it convincing.

So what could possibly go wrong?

Estep's editor seems to have been asleep at the wheel. There are number of times when passages giving back story are repeated, sometimes word for word, a few chapters apart. It was like listening again and again to a "Previously, on Elemental Assassin" segment designed for readers who either haven't been paying attention or suffer from short-term memory loss. I can tell you without any reference to the text that Gin was with Fletcher for seventeen years, that's she's been an assassin for seventeen years, that she has a rune on her hand: "a small circle with eight radiating lines, a spider rune, the symbol for patience." because they are repeated so often they are almost a chorus.

It's natural for authors to repeat themselves from one scene to another, including use the same words. Its the editors job to find and eliminate these repetitions.

A good editor would also have prevented Estep from over-using phrases like "I looked at him with my grey eyes" After the third time I was wondering if Gin either had eyes of another colour that she could have used instead or was able to use something other than her eyes to look at people.

A good editor would have corrected the grammar, at least to the point of getting endings and tenses right.

A good editor would have prevented Gin Blanco from going "Mmmmm" EVERY time she sees Detective Doright.

I was left wondering if this book had an editor at all.

My experience of the book was then worsened by the audiobook production standards.

I know Lauren Fortgang can be a good narrator. I enjoyed her reading "Shadow and Bone" and she made "Spider's Bite" come alive but this time I felt that I was listening to a sight-reading in a rehearsal rather than the finished product: stresses where in the wrong places, she ran out of breath and there were inappropriate, pointless pauses. This all adds up to poor production in my view.

Then there's the sex scene. It's not really a sex scene. It's a "Romance Writer's of America", guaranteed -not-to-offend scene with all the erotic impact of a cold shower. Lauren Fortgang's decision to read this passage slowly, in what I assume was an effort to inject some passion into the dull prose, had me reaching for the "play at twice normal speed" button on my iPod.

I'm going to stick with the series to find out what happens. I just Jennifer Estep got an editor who can help her make her books as good as I think they could be and a producer who gives the narrator an opportunity to do more than phone in their performance.

Se ( )

It been some time since I've read the first book of this series, but I didn't forget what happened in it, not really. But this one, just helped in reminding me what happened, and who I liked and didn't like. I love Gin and I love Finn, and the devereux sisters. Who I don't like is Detective Donovan Caine, he was just too righteous in a world full of hate and corruption, and sometimes morals just got in the way of the bigger picture. I was glad that he left at the end, because Mr. Warren was 100% dead on when he said to Gin "He's not good for you." Though a new player came in, on this book Owen Greyson, sleek millionaire business man, with the sexy violet eyes. I liked him from the start, hope to see him more in the coming books. ( )

I am really enjoying listening to these on audiobook! ( )