Dead Spots (Scarlett Bernard)
Scarlett Bernard knows about personal space: step within ten feet of her, and anything supernatural is instantly neutralized--vampires and werewolves become human again, and witches can't cast the slightest spell. Scarlett uses her status as a null to cover up crime scenes for Los Angeles's three most powerful magical communities, helping them keep humanity, and the LAPD, in the dark.
One night Scarlett gets caught at the scene of a grisly murder by the all-too-human LAPD cop Jesse Cruz, who blackmails her into a deal: he'll keep quiet about the supernatural underworld if she helps him crack the case. Their pact doesn't sit well with Dashiell, the city's chief vampire, who fears his whole empire is at stake. And when the clues start to point to Scarlett herself, it'll take more than her unique powers to catch the real killer and clear her name.
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Community Reviews
While Alexia's story unfolds in the whimsical and charming alternate universe of a steampunk London, Scarlett Bernard lives very much in "our" world, where her "power" as a null is put to very different use. And it's not a particularly charming use, either!
The vivid descriptions of mutilated bodies very nearly put me off the story, as that's the main reason I had to stop reading the Harry Dresden series. But something about the way the narrator voices Scarlett reminds me a wee bit of some of the characters in Molly Harper's Jane Jameson series (which I adored), so that kept me from pressing "stop." I also felt echoes of several other urban fantasy characters I've enjoyed, to the point that I'm interested enough to put the next book in the series in my queue.
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