Black Sun's Daughter

In a world where magic walks and demons ride, you can't always play by the rules. Jayne Heller thinks of herself as a realist, until she discovers reality isn't quite what she thought it was. When her uncle Eric is murdered, Jayne travels to Denver to settle his estate, only to learn that it's all hers-and vaster than she ever imagined. And along with properties across the world and an inexhaustible fortune, Eric left her a legacy of a different kind: his unfinished business with a cabal of wizards known as the Invisible College. Led by the ruthless Randolph Coin, the Invisible College harnesses demon spirits for their own ends of power and domination. Jayne finds it difficult to believe magic and demons can even exist, let alone be responsible for the death of her uncle. But Coin sees Eric's heir as a threat to be eliminated by any means-magical or mundane-so Jayne had better start believing in something to save her own life. Aided in her mission by a group of unlikely companions-Aubrey, Eric's devastatingly attractive assistant; Ex, a former Jesuit with a lethal agenda; Midian, a two-hundred-year-old man who claims to be under a curse from Randolph Coin himself; and Chogyi Jake, a self-styled Buddhist with mystical abilities-Jayne finds that her new reality is not only unexpected, but often unexplainable. And if she hopes to survive, she'll have to learn the new rules fast-or break them completely...

In the battle between good and evil, there's no such thing as a fair fight. When JaynE Heller's uncle Eric died, she inherited a fortune beyond all her expectations-and a dangerous mission in a world she never knew existed. Reining in demons and supernatural foes is a formidable task, but thankfully JaynE has vast resources and loyal allies to rely on. She'll need both to tackle a bodyswitching serial killer who's taken up residence in New Orleans, a city rich in voodoo lore and dark magic. Working alongside Karen Black, a highly confident and enigmatic ex-FBI agent, JaynE races to track down the demon's next intended host. But the closer she gets, the more convinced she becomes that nothing in this beautiful, wounded city is exactly as it seems. When shocking secrets come to light, and jealousy and betrayal turn trusted friends into adversaries, JaynE will soon come face-to-face with an enemy that knows her all too well, and won't rest until it has destroyed everything she loves most...

When you're staring evil in the eye, don't forget to watch your back...?/B For the first time in forever, JaynE Heller's life is making sense. Even if she routinely risks her life to destroy demonic parasites that prey on mortals, she now has friends, colleagues, a trusted lover, and newfound confidence in the mission she inherited from her wealthy, mysterious uncle. Her next job might just rob her of all of them. At Grace Memorial Hospital in Chicago, something is stirring. Patients are going AWOL and research subjects share the same sinister dreams. Half a century ago, something was buried under Grace in a terrible ritual, and it's straining to be free. JaynE is primed to take on whatever's about to be let loose. Yet the greatest danger now may not be the huge, unseen force lurking below, but the evil that has been hiding in plain sight all along-taking her ever closer to losing her body, her mind, and her soul...?

The fourth book in M.L.N. Hanover's acclaimed Black Sun's Daughter series featuring "smooth prose and zippy action sequences" (Publishers Weekly). JaynE Heller has discovered the source of her uncanny powers: something else is living inside her body. She's possessed. Of all her companions, she can only bring herself to confide in Ex, the former priest. They seek help from his old teacher, hoping to cleanse JaynE before the parasite in her becomes too powerful. Ex's history and a new enemy combine to leave JaynE alone and on the run. Her friends try to hunt her down, unaware of the danger they're putting her in. JaynE must defeat the past, and her only allies are a rogue vampire she once helped free-and the nameless thing hiding inside her skin.

It's a homecoming, of sorts, for JaynE Heller-and she wants some long-awaited answers to her past, in this fifth book in the acclaimed Black Sun's Daughter urban fantasy series. After years on her own, JaynE Heller is going home to find some answers. How did the powerful spirit calling itself the Black Sun get into her body? Who was her uncle Eric, and what was the grand plan that he devoted his life to? Who did her mother have an affair with, and why? What happened to her on her sixteenth birthday? And the tattoo-seriously-what was that about? JaynE arrives amid preparations for her older brother's shotgun wedding, but she's not the only unexpected guest. The Invisible College has come to town to stop the ceremony. And the more she learns, the more she uncovers a darkness that runs deeper than generations and stronger than blood. A missing bride and wizards bent on vengeance may be the least of her problems. Because in the shadows of JaynE's childhood home, a greater threat awaits that didn't die with her uncle. It calls itself the Graveyard Child.