Magic Strikes has Kate Daniels working another case involving Atlanta’s shapeshifter community (aka The Pack). She arrives on the scene of a double shapeshifter homicide. She sees her friend and sometime partner, Jim, who abruptly takes her off the case citing Pack business. Essentially, telling her to stay the f*@k out of it. Kate obviously finds this a bit rude, but hey now she gets to go home early.
Later that night, she is forced to bail Derek, a werewolf pal, out of a sticky situation with Saiman, a rich magical being Kate has worked with before. Derek tried to steal tickets to the Midnight Games, an exclusive underground fight to the death club for supernatural creatures and magic wielders. Saiman is quite keen on Kate, so he offers to let Derek off the hook if Kate comes as his date to that evening’s fight. He wants her professional opinion on a mysterious team of fighters called the Reapers on an unusual winning streak. She is forced to agree as she can’t leave her friend out to dry. Nevertheless, she tells Saiman this is not a goddamn date and she’ll cut him if he makes a move on her. Kate does not mess about. She knows something is amiss in town and this may be the only way to help Derek. Again, she finds her shapeshifter friend tightlipped. The werewolf simply asks her to attend the illegal games and pass a note to a girl named Livie. Before the next sun comes up, Kate is neck deep in the case as the Reapers make threats on her and try to kill Derek. If that wasn’t enough, the Beast Lord, leader of the Pack and sexy lion shapeshifter comes to Kate for assistance. He is shut out of the case as well by a rogue Jim. He too threatens Kate to help him solve the case before he is forced to discipline (i.e. kill) Jim & Derek. With the stakes high, she has to figure out what’s going on at the games (unofficially) to protect her friends before they all end up dead.
Definitely loving this series and this third entry continues to reveal how badass Kate is. The Beast Lord has certainly taken notice as well. He’s sizing her up pretty damn seriously to be her mate. Even whilst making death threats, he never loses a chance to make his intentions known. Looking forward to book 4 to see if these two crazy cats get it on.
Read my other reviews of the Kate Daniels series on my blog.