Circle of Enemies

Connolly perfectly wraps up his urban fantasy trilogy (after 2009's Child of Fire and 2010's Game of Cages) with a morally complex and deeply disturbing adventure. The Twenty Palace Society, a cabal of sorcerers, rescued amateur magician and petty criminal Ray Lilly from prison; he repays them by serving as mostly nonmagical muscle. A mysterious message calls Ray from the Pacific Northwest to L.A., where he finds the remaining members of his old gang have been touched by magic and the Society has them marked for death. As Ray hunts the source of the magic, he encounters an old frenemy and begins questioning the Society's motives. Ray already regrets having harmed innocents on the Society's orders; his struggle with his history, his debt to and fear of the Society, and the need to protect the world from magical predators elevates this series well above its peers. (Sept.)