Deliverance by Dakota Banks

Deliverance (Mortal Path # 3) is an adventure from the first page to the last. Maliha Crayne, the former Ageless assassin for the demon Rabishu, is pushed to the limits when those she calls friends, and members of her inner circle, begin to go missing and are feared dead. 

She is forced not only to push back her quest to retrieve all 7 shards from the Tablet of the Overload (for which she has 3), but to make hard personal choices as well.

The Mortal Path series has been about Maliha’s quest to redeem herself after 300 years of being an immortal assassin. She gave up her assassin career in order to balance the scales of justice in the eyes of Anu the Sumerian god of Justice.

Anu pulls Maliha through time aging her just a little each time she does good. She carries a mini-scale of justice in her skin that moves after each of her deeds is done. One side is for the people she killed, while the other is for those she saves from harm. 

Maliha’s struggles with decisions about whether or not to involve those she loves or keep them at a distance to protect them. She knows that if they continue to stand by her side, they will end up hurt, or worse.

Yanmeng, the oldest and wisest of the group, is kidnapped and in order to get him back, Maliha is blackmailed by an Ageless terror named Elizabeth Bathory into returning to her assassin duties in the name of creating a new America under the guise of the New Founders.

Concurrently, Maliha starts to have serious doubts about Jake and whether or not she can truly trust him after being given some eye opening information from a longtime friend about Jake’s past deeds in the 5 years he mysteriously disappeared. Jake is also on his own path of destruction which doesn't mess with Maliha's.

I really enjoyed Deliverance and highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys mysteries, suspense, and thrillers. I would also recommend that future readers to this series start from Dark Time, and move onto Sacrifice in order to get a better understanding of Maliha’s quest for redemption.

Ms Banks has also created some really enjoyable sub-characters in Master Liu, Hound, Amaro Reese, as well as Yanmeng, who go hand and foot with Maliha’s quest to rid the world of the Sumerian demons which includes her former handler Rabishu.

Lastly, I appreciate being given an opportunity to read this book prior to its release date. I applaud Ms Banks and her publicist Kate in being so open and easy to work with.

Expected publication: March 27th 2012