Sins of the Angels, by Linda Poitevin

Title: Sins of the Angels
Author: Linda Poitevin
Publication date: 2011
Publisher: Ace
Length: 325 pages
Genre: urban fantasy
Source: Christmas present

Description: A detective with a secret lineage. An undercover Hunter with a bulletproof soul. And a world made to pay for the sins of angel...
Homicide detective Alexandra Jarvis answers to no one. Especially not to the new partner assigned to her in the middle of a gruesome serial-killer case - a partner who is obstructive, irritatingly magnetic, and arrogant as hell.
Aramael is a Power - a hunter of the Fallen Angels. A millennium ago, he sentenced his own brother to eternal exile for crimes against humanity. Now his brother is back and wreaking murderous havoc in the mortal realm. To find him, Aramael must play second to a human police officer who wants nothing to do with him and whose very bloodline threatens both his mission and his soul.
Now, faced with a Fallen Angel hell-bent on triggering the apocalypse, Alex and Aramael have no choice but to join forces, because only together can they stop the end of days. 

My thoughts: I wish it hadn't taken me so long to read this book! I loved it. Although the good part is that I don't need to wait to read the next part of the story!

The story gets straight to the action, with Alex at the scene of a gruesome murder, and trying to push away thoughts of a similar scene from when she was a child - we soon discover that her mother had been mentally ill and eventually killed herself. Unfortunately, one thing her mum thought she saw was angels, so when Aramael shows up and Alex keeps catching sight of his wings, she fears she's developing the same illness. The story races from one murder scene to the next, with Alex and the police frantically trying to find a connection that can lead them to the killer. At the same time, Alex is trying to deal with Aramael as an irritating partner, someone she's very attracted to, and a man who she keeps seeing with wings, making her question her sanity. I enjoyed how there was that extra level to the story - not just a fight between whether she likes him or not, but the connection between him and her 'visions'.

It is also told from several points of view, following not just Alex and Aramael, but also the killer and some of the other angels. Behind this current crisis is a problem in the realm of the angels, a threat of war that has been hanging there for a long time and now seems about to spill over, while secrets are uncovered that are changing things.

There is a lot going on for a tidy little paperback, but Poitevin handles it well - it never got confusing to keep people or plots straight. I was very engaged in the story, and sped through the book in just two days - I needed to know what happened next! I haven't read many angel stories, and I liked the world set up in Sins of the Angels.

Overall, Sins of the Angels was a very exciting read. I loved the introduction to the world and the emotional turmoil of multiple characters in the story. As soon as I can, I'm going to have to find the sequel to see what becomes of the world and the characters who were introduced here.

I give Sins of the Angels 9 stars.

~Ailsa