cover image Unclean Spirits

Unclean Spirits

M. L. N. Hanover, . . Pocket, $15 (357pp) ISBN 978-1-4165-7597-9

Denver is lousy with monsters and mayhem in this urban fantasy series launch by epic fantasist Daniel Abraham (The Long Price Quartet series), his first venture under the Hanover pen name. Stereotypically plucky heroine Jayné Heller stumbles into a world of dangerous magic when she inherits a distant uncle’s fortune and his difficulties with a clan of malicious supernatural beings. Jayné likewise gains her uncle’s loose conglomerate of useful friends, all of whom have about one character trait apiece (the chef, the Frenchman, the ex-Jesuit), and she plots with them to destroy her uncle’s murderer, the sinister Randolph Coin. When trouble threatens, Jayné displays startling monster-fighting abilities, belatedly attributed to her uncle’s blessing. Abraham’s smooth prose and zippy action sequences sag under the weight of clichés. (Dec.)