A Sliver of Shadow

Abby Sinclair, the human TouchStone for Faery princess Moira, returns in a somewhat muddled second urban fantasy (after A Brush of Darkness) that sets a supernatural love triangle against the backdrop of a war between Faery and Hell. Abby is left to care for Moira’s half-angel child with the help of Moira’s outcast half-brother, Talivar, and Phineas, an obnoxious miniature unicorn. Then the half-mad Faery Queen closes the CrossRoads between worlds, leaving OtherFolk stranded on Earth to slowly fade away. Abby must face political machinations, the remnants of the Unseelie Court, and her painful family history while burdened by a tangled cast of minor characters and a tendency toward soap-opera angst, especially when she is torn between Talivar and her former lover, the incubus Brystion. Pang shines in her depiction of the lower-caste denizens of Faery and pulls her rather baroque conspiracy together with some coherence before a frustratingly abrupt and inconclusive ending. Agent: Suzie Townsend, FinePrint Literary Management. (Mar.)