Burned

In this first installment of the Magic Bullet series, a supernatural secret agent is disavowed by her bosses, depowered, and thrust into a world of trouble after a mission goes terribly wrong. Now djinn Alyse Winters is back home in Philadelphia without access to her usual resources or any idea of why she’s been “burned,” and with any number of enemies hot on her tail. To make ends meet, she takes a retrieval job for the mob. However, when she becomes a suspect in a series of brutal murders involving missing body parts, she’s forced to investigate in order to clear her name. Luckily, she still has a few good friends on her side. Blythe (Death Match) focuses a great deal on worldbuilding and setting up the premise, but this is still a fast-paced, somewhat over-the-top adventure. Her heroine is resourceful, determined, and smart-mouthed, able to roll with the constant surprises and twists. Though this does have a paint-by-numbers urban-fantasy feel to it, Alyse’s world of magic, mayhem, and murder has plenty of potential for further entertaining entries. (BookLife)