A Perfect Blood is the tenth entry in Kim Harrison‘s series about a witch bounty hunter, Rachel Morgan. This time around, it’s not supernatural beings out for her blood but…humans. Rachel believes the I.S. has called her out to consult, but really they wanted to see if she was the culprit of ritual witch killings. The victims apparently are being experimented upon with illegal demon curses by a group of human terrorists who want to rid the world of all supernatural creatures. Seems a bit counterproductive to use demon magic to rid the world of witches and other such beings. But hey criminals don’t think logically and the ends totally justify the means.
Rachel finds herself forced onto the case to clear her name since she is the only sort of demon the I.S. have on record. A very sneaky way they think to get her to decipher demon magic for them. Instead, it just pisses her off more. Her friend Glenn in the F.I.B is on her side, but his superiors want her demon knowledge too. As usual, she walks the line in between while trying to solve these murders. Especially when she discovers the terrorists are really looking for witches with demonic links in their genes, which Rachel is the closest possible one in existence. These dirty humans are calling her out with their bloody killings. Just begging her to find them and allow them to do even stronger demon magic. Demons and Elves have been warring for eons, so the idea of humans poking around with that level of magic aimlessly isn’t good for anyone.
Book ten saw Rachel in a more helpless situation than previous books. To fly under the radar and attempt to live among humans, Trent binds her demon magic. She can’t even do leyline magic, which isn’t great when sadistic terrorists are out for your literal blood. Quite a bit of the book is her soul searching on whether she should embrace her true nature or not. In the end, she honestly doesn’t have a choice. Earth magic means lots of spell books and prep, not very helpful to call upon when her life is on the line. The audiobook was pretty good, which I used to finish up the book when my hardcover version had to be returned to the library. It was nice to listen to the suspenseful action sequences of which there were many in this novel. I wouldn’t recommend jumping into this series so late, but the author does give enough backstory that you wouldn’t be totally lost. I can’t say it was my favorite, but it was a pivotal arc in Rachel’s life story. Three more books until I am done with this series, so the end is in sight. I have no idea where it will take me, which is exactly what keeps me returning to Harrison’s supernatural world!
With only a few hours left in Cannonball Read 10, this is likely my last review for the year. Onward to CBR11 registration and excellent books in my future.