Sins of the Angels (Book 1, The Grigori Legacy Series)

Author: Linda Poitevin
Release Date: September 27, 2011
Publisher: Ace
Source: Publisher
Genre(s): Urban Fantasy

Rating: ?????
Review Spoilers:  Low
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Sins of the Angels is not a book I would have ever looked at and thought, ‘yeah, this book is for me.’ I’ve never been one to pick up fiction with a religious slant (seriously does anyone remember how awful the Left Behind series was – or worse, the Left Behind: The Kids stuff?), but I’m so glad I got the opportunity to look at the Grigori Legacy series. While it brings in different religious aspects, the focus is more on free will.

Alexandra Jarvis is a Homicide detective in the middle of a gruesome serial killer case when she’s assigned her new partner, Jacob Trent – a man who seems bent on stopping the killer through unconventional means. As someone involved in one way or another with cops for almost ten years now, I’ve got to say I’m hyper critical with how police work is presented. Sins of the Angels did not disappoint me in the least – which isn’t surprising, since Poitevin was a dispatcher for almost three years. I appreciated how, even as Trent brushed off conventional police work, Alex pushed back against that and tried her damnedest to make him a good officer, wrongfully assuming that he had been a desk jockey promoted up to detective through political means.

In reality, Trent is an angel known as a Power, sent to Earth to destroy the fallen angel responsible for the horrible crimes they’re tracking down. He resents Alex for bloodlines she doesn’t even know she possesses – her father was part Nephilim, making her part of the Angels who rose up against The One and were cast out of Heaven forever – but they make it work the best they can. Things get even more complicated when Trent, better known to the other angels as Aramael, begins to feel things for Alex that he really shouldn’t be capable of feeling.

Things could have gotten soapy here, but they really didn’t. Much of their time is spent snapping at each other and reaching tentatively terse agreements. It’s realistic for the short amounts of time they interact while both trying to achieve http://www.montauk-monster.com/pharmacy/celebrex their own goals. And I think that’s why I like Alex so much. A horrible incident from childhood leaves her wary and scared of the impossible things Aramael is forced to reveal to her when she gets too curious, but she reacts as well as she possibly can and doesn’t lose sight of the objectives at hand. In fact, when she relents that Trent may have some weird psychic connection to Caim, the killer, she doesn’t hesitate to try to use that to their advantage.

I don’t want to reveal too much of the case because the twists and turns were part of the fun of reading this book, even things I thought I saw coming hit me in the gut. We get a look at the officers that Alex works with, as well as the Angels that orchestrate Aramael’s actions. Mittron is the Highest Seraph, who I couldn’t see as anyone other than Alan Rickman droning on (thanks Dogma). Verchiel is a Dominion and Seth, who follows Aramael down to Earth and assumes a human identity as Seth Benjamin, is something else entirely. See? That’s not too hard to follow; even a long-lapsed church-goer like me could piece together the Heavenly hierarchy.

A war between Heaven and Hell hangs in the balance of the outcome of this case and my only gripe about the whole thing? It ends on a cliff-hanger! I’m so glad I was given the three books in the series to review because I don’t think I could wait on knowing what happens next. Sins of the Angels, while something of a misleadingly bland and generic title, has enough red herrings, twists, turns, and action to keep you reading to find out what happens next.

Final Thoughts: It may be a little less urban fantasy and more of a police procedural horror story, but the fantastical elements that Linda Poitevin creates in this world are pretty amazing and definitely worth checking out. The characters are strong, the case is interesting, and the only thing I found unbelievable was the fact that it was set in Canada, but there was no mentions of hockey! Have my Canadian friends been leading me astray? 😉