Flame in the Dark

In Hunter’s third novel (after 2016’s Curse on the Land) to feature probationary special agent Nell Ingram, someone, or something, is targeting a Tennessee senator and his family with bullets and fire. Nell’s unit, Unit Eighteen of the Psychometry Law Enforcement Division (PsyLED) of Homeland Security, polices paranormal entities and people with unusual abilities. When suspicion for the attacks on the senator falls on DNAKeys, a lab that may be experimenting on paranormals, PsyLED is called in, but the body count rises, and Nell fears that their efforts may be too little too late. In addition to her newly minted status as special agent, Nell is working through some personal issues around separating from the cultlike God’s Cloud of Glory Church; exploring her growing feelings for fellow agent Occam, a wereleopard; and discovering there is much more to her earth-based powers than she thought, including the leaves that have begun to sprout from her neck and fingernails. Nell’s coming into her own as an independent woman is as fascinating as PsyLED’s investigation into a very unusual family that’s hiding dangerous secrets. Hunter’s many fans will be delighted with her strong new heroine. Agent: Lucienne Diver, Knight Agency. (Dec.)