Lyn Benedict
Ghosts & Echoes
Shadows Inquiries, Book #2

Review brought to you by OBS staff member Heidi

Ghosts & Echoes is the second installment in the Shadows Inquiries series by Lyn Benedict.  In this installment we find Sylvie reluctantly back to work after taking an extended vacation trying to recover from all that happened in Chicago back in book #1, Sins & Shadows.  Sylvie is looking for an easy case and none of the cases that Alex tells her about seems to fit the bill.

Sylvie grudgingly takes a case from their neighboring businesses to help find out who is burglarizing stores in the area.  While staking out the next probable burglary hit one of her cases she was planning to refuse comes and talks to her.  The case is Adam Wright a Chicago Police officer who claims to be possessed by a ghost.  She eventually agrees to take his case and later discovers that the ghost he’s possessed by is none other than her kind of lover, Demailion, that got killed helping her. Demalion expects her to find a way to get his life back for him.

Sylvie learns that the burglaries are being performed by rich teenagers using black magic talismans, the hands of glory, which are hands of murderers with the ghosts trapped inside.  And more disturbing than that she discovers that her little sister, Zoe, could be involved.  She must find out who is making these hands and selling them to teenagers and how to help get Demalion’s ghost out of Wright’s body when all she wants to do is keep Demalion close to her.

When I started reading this book I wasn’t sure if I’d like it or not as I didn’t really care for the first installment of the series, Sins & Shadows.  But I’m happy to report that I found this story much more entertaining than the first.  I thought Sylvie’s sister, Zoe, brought a lot to the story and even made Sylvie seem more real and believable.  I didn’t think Sylvie was nearly as hard-headed and unreasonable as she was at times in the last novel.

I liked Adam Wright and thought him and Demailion sharing his body was interesting.  Especially as they learned to get along and even work together sometimes tag-teaming poor Sylvie!  You could really feel Sylvie’s struggle as she got to know Wright and even liked him, but still longed to have Demalion back in her life full-time.

I did not expect the book to end the way it did especially not where Wright was concerned.  But loved how it kept things open for what is to come with Zoe.

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars, which is a vast improvement from it predecessor and hope that the series continues to improve.