Premonitions

The theft of a rhinoceros penis connects four Angeleno crooks—psychic Karyn Ames, street tough Anna Ruiz, eager young fortune-teller Tommy, and ex-military gunman Nail—to haughty, ultra-wealthy magus Enoch Sobell in this promising urban fantasy series launch. Sobell commissions the quartet to grab a jawbone from occult adept Nathan Mendelsohn, and assigns magician Genevieve Lyle to tag along. Ruiz soon develops a romantic connection with Lyle that threatens to undermine Ames and Ruiz’s longtime friendship and the integrity of the team. This interpersonal struggle adds a subplot to the violent struggle between Soboll’s lackeys and Mendelsohn’s Brotherhood of Zagam, which gets muddied when loyal Sobell lieutenant Joe Gresser unexpectedly goes on the lam with the jawbone—and the god it summons. Meanwhile, Ames is jonesing hard for a drug that helps control her increasingly bizarre visions. In the contest for magical power, group turns against group and treachery is rampant. The development of the three women’s relationships will keep readers coming back to this gritty series. (July)