Hunter's Prayer

???I am not a nice person??? ??? Jill Kismet

Jill Kismet is a Hunter ??? she keeps her city safe by tracking and destroying the creatures of the Nightside ??? those things that come out of hell to prey on humans. The cops call on Jill when there???s a crime that seems to involve paranormal beings. Jill takes care of it while the cops cover it up. Jill???s a badass ??? she can beat up anybody ??? but she also has some special powers of sorcery and healing which she got by making a bargain with a hellspawn named Perry. Perry keeps Jill alive and in return she gives him two hours of her ???time??? each month.

In Night Shift, the first book in Lilith Saintcrow???s JILL KISMET series (reviewed by Robert), we met all the main characters, but you don???t really need to read Night Shift to understand what???s going on in this second book, Hunter???s Prayer. Saintcrow quickly catches up new readers and Jill is dealing with a new threat to the Nightside this time. Teenage prostitutes are being brutally murdered and eviscerated and their internal organs and eyeballs are being harvested. Jill is called in to solve the crime and it???s soon clear that whatever is killing those girls is after Jill, too. Fortunately Jill???s got backup from her sidekick lover, a werecat named Saul, and Perry???s contributions are keeping her alive.

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Ok, here goes round two for the Jill Kismet series and I must say I was impressed. For the most part I am getting a handle on how Saintcrow's world works. Some writers prefer their readers to work through the pieces they give them, leaving it up to the readers to form a full picture. I haven't read an author with this writing style in a while, but Saintcrow certainly has a way with words, an intense bunch of characters and plot twists. I really really want to know why Jill made a deal with Perry though. It seems taboo for a hunter to do so, did Mikhail know she wouldn't be able to handle the nightside with out it? Did he know he was going to die? My questions aside, this was a hell of a ride!  I devoured this book when the first one took me a little while to sink into. We see another side to Kismet's psyche and she isn't as badass as she was in the first book. Well let me rephrase that, she was badass but not as unbreakable. I had fears that she would turn into an unstoppable force since she healed so damn fast in the first book, but Saintcrow added a healthy amount of balance this time around. I am eager to continue reading this series.