Smoke, Mirrors, and Demons (The Carnival Society #1)
Author: Kat Cotton
4 out of 5 Stars
After running away from the circus as a teenager, Jayne swore she’d never go anywhere near any kind of circus performance again. Now a 25-year-old FBI agent, Jayne is assigned to a case involving a traveling troupe and the strange murders that follow them. Despite her vow, when she passes the audition and is asked to join them, she ends up agreeing to keep another agent from being put in danger. As she gets closer to the group, she begins to believe that they had nothing to do with the murders. Then she’s attacked by a demon. She realizes that she can no longer ignore her past or her powers if she hopes to solve this case and make it out alive.
Overall, I liked the characters and their interactions, especially as Jayne becomes closer to the troupe. Despite trying to keep her distance, she can’t help buy like them and slowly begins to see them as friends. Jayne is an interesting character having been raised in the circus before running away as a teenager and meeting her foster father. She also has powers that include empathy, visions, and killing demons. Because of her past and her powers, Jayne keeps tight control of herself and pushes others away. The only person she lets close is her foster father, who she has a great relationship with, but you can also see throughout the story that she does want to get close to people.
The writing was good. There was a good flow and natural dialogue. The plot was intriguing with hints of their being links between circuses, and performing in general, being linked to demons and having powers. The demon’s ultimate goal ended up being pretty standard ad unsurprising: he wants to open a portal to Hell. It’s the circus aspect that made it more interesting. And there are hints about more going on that Jayne doesn’t know about, seemingly because she ran away.
There aren’t many negatives, but the main one is that the plot isn’t really unique. I also had a problem with how Jayne’s background between high school and joining the FBI was brushed past without giving any details.. Jayne also says at one point that she’s dealt with drug lords and crime bosses, but it just seems unrealistic that she would have been that involved in cases like that when you can only join the FBI at 23, and even other branches of federal law enforcement require agents to be 21.
Due to the negatives, I’m rating this book 4 out of 5 stars. If you like this type of circus environment in a story and fantasy stories with demons, then this is the book for you.
Price through Amazon Kindle: $0
Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FC7M1GX
(I do not benefit from the use of this link.)