Death Magic by Eileen Wilks

Death Magic
Eileen Wilks
Publisher: Berkley Pub Group, 2011
ISBN-9780425245125
Length-416 pages

Death Magic, by Eileen Wilks, is the eight novel in the World of the Lupi series. Lily Yu is a former San Diego homicide cop who now works for the FBI’s Magical Crimes Division. She’s a touch sensitive who is able to feel magic, but can’t work magic, nor can magic affect her.

She struggles on a daily basis with her new life with fiancé Rule Tanner who is the Rho of the Leidolf clan, as well as prince of the Nokolai clan. Her job as a law enforcement officer comes with perils as well as risks. She realizes that there are times that she needs to cross the line in order to stop her enemies from harming those she has come to love.

If you’ve read the previous book, Blood Challenge, you know that Lily is also carrying the Wythe Rho mantle because she is lady touched as Rule’s Chosen. They’ve yet to meet someone The Lady wants to pass it along to. The mantle is healing Lily’s arm from where she was shot but causing her other serious problems like her ability to see ghosts and her ever increasing migraines. It appears that the mantle is trying to change her.

Ruben Brooks, her MCD boss, reveals to Lily that he has secretly set up a Shadow Unit to fight back against her who shall not be named, aka the Great Bitch and her followers. Later, Brooks is set up and accused of killing a US senator who is a vocal member of Human’s First coalition and who hates werewolves and those like Lily who associate with them. For Brooks, a pre-cog, his entire life changes over the course of this book and you have to wonder in what direction Wilks is taking this series.

The war has started between the forces of the Great Bitch and the Lady. The Dragons, like Sam, have come out openly in support of Ruben, and the weres war. There are innocent casualties along the way because of the actions of the Human’s first leadership.

It’s still five months away from Rule and Lily’s wedding yet they both tend to keep secret’s away from the other. Rule, being Brooks second in command of the Shadow Unit, was kept away from Lily until she was forced into a corner by The Great Bitches allies and jailed for obstruction of justice. Lily still refuses to be coddled, or treated like a prisoner having body guards on her at all times of the day.

This series has appealed to me from the beginning because of the world building and the sub-characters like Cullen Seabourne, a Lupus and Sorcerer, as well as Cynna Weaver who went from being an FBI agent, to having the first female lupus baby in the history of the weres. Cullen is once again involved in the events of this book, while Cynna plays only a minor role not worth mentioning.

One of the questions that has still not been answered is who was responsible for poisoning Brooks and why? There are some suspects, and it appears as though Wilks has made them out to be patsy’s, but, I really think the conspiracy is much deeper than we’ve been told.

I also enjoyed Ruben’s wife Deborah who turns out to be an interesting character. Wilks also introduces the Brownies to the storyline as allies like the Dragons are to the Were’s.