Pack of Lies (Book II: Paranormal Scene Investigations)

By: Laura Anne Gilman
Publisher: Luna Books 
Publication Date: January 2011
ISBN: 978-0-373-80324-8
Reviewed by: Amy Lignor 
Review Date: June 5, 2011 

The sassy, fantastically written cast that was introduced in the incredible book, Hard Magic,is back in this new release.

Bonita Torres is a girl who lives in the “electric” Big Apple and absolutely loves her life. Her day job is with P.U.P.I. (pronounced “puppy”) which stands for the Private Unaffiliated Paranormal Investigations team of New York. Bonita is a college-graduate, but was unemployed and just couldn’t find her ‘niche’ until P.U.P.I. came along. Her “team” is made up of Nifty, Nick, Sharon, Pietr, and herself - and each and every one of them has a magical gift. In fact, they are called Talents, and they live in the world of Cosa Nostradamus, which is the magical community.

Now, P.U.P.I. has yet to be taken seriously or accepted by Cosa, even though they’ve proven themselves on some cases. They are treated a bit like intruders; a lot like Internal Affairs treats the police. The executives of P.U.P.I make up the rest of the “team” which are Ian Stosser, who is the “face” of the organization, and Benjamin Venec, who is referred to as the “Big Dog,” who trains the Talents in order to make them better at what they do so they can ferret out the information that police just can not find.

Bonita’s gift uses her “magical current” mixed with her precognitive skills, which means she can look over a location that has “seen” and “felt” something bad, and be able to actually see what happened there. This, of course, gives the team a place to start in order to solve the crime.

These twenty-something’s get called in on a crime. A young woman (a “virgin”) was walking down the street with her ki-rin in tow when someone tried to harm her. The ki-rin went crazy and killed one man while disemboweling the other attacker. The ki-rin is a magical beast which demands respect from the magical community. He is one of the top of the line “fatae,” and the fatae membership might just rise-up and come full force against the Cosa Nostradamus if their ki-rin is treated unfairly.

So…it is up to P.U.P.I. to solve the crime; prove they are a worthy organization to have on your side; and find a way to stop a serious war from beginning. And do all this while Bonita has to fight her attraction to the “Big Dog,” by using any means necessary.

Every single page of this book will have readers engrossed. The author does a magnificent job of creating a world that (we could possibly be living in right now) except, we are the Nulls - the non-magical ones who simply can not see what is all around us. The cast is compelling, smart, wicked, and sassy. The romance is underlying and more than hot, and the suspense and thrill of each and every moment is a breath of fresh air in a world of boring old vampires.

Quill Says: A truly terrific series that, hopefully, will go on for a good long time.