Review: Echoes of Deviance

Echoes of Deviance by Lyn Gala
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Kavon and Darren are back in another harrowing case of violent magical kills. I thought for sure the third book in this series would be the end. Happily there is this one and another. This story starts up closely after the last book ends. For the best experience, read all three books prior to this one, and in order.

This story is more character development and world building than plot. At least, that is how it feels to me. We still have a power struggle between Kavon and Darren. Kavon has not gotten over Darren's status as a human and worries about every little thing. Darren, who now has powerful spirit guides to help him, is feeling boxed in. This makes for many emotional outbursts between the two when they should be working together to solve the case. This fighting rolls onto their team members who are already broken due to a betrayal they never saw coming. Is it possible to heal this team and make it whole again? Not sure as Darren was that glue and he is now in a different position. One he is trying desperately to work out as the Egyptian contingent is giving him more respect and reverence than he is comfortable with.

I like the Egyptian angle and we do learn a little bit more about them. There are hints of more crisis to come and it is almost like a teaser throughout this entire novel. The pace does move quickly and I do enjoy the action. The arguments between Kavon and Darren are a bit old. And Kavon's head in the sand behavior with the politics of his magical world is also becoming tedious. When will Kavon mature and take it on? Because if he doesn't, another despot will slip in when both Kavon and Darren are busy at their day job.

I wish there was more with the spirit guides too. I want to learn more and what it is that they may or may not do. How will this time working with humans result in anything different from the last time? There will always be power hungry people, trying to take over the world and ruining it for the rest of magical society. Hopefully the next books will feature others in this world and share more about the spirit guides. This paranormal urban fantasy is recommended to m/m readers who enjoy mystery, magic and mayhem.