Great continuation of Spider's Bite. Gin has been in retirement since Fletcher's funeral, and runs the Pork Pig in his absence. Retirement is boring, but when two teenagers attempt to rob the restaurant things start to pick up. One of the boys is none other than James McAlistor's son, and Gin soon is tied up with McAlistor preventing customers from visiting the Pork Pig.
Couple days later a girl named Violet Fox comes around asking after the Tin Man, which was Fletcher's assassin name, and before Gin can figure out why, a sniper attempts to take her out. By the time she realizes that the sniper was after Violet, the girl is gone, and Gin ends up pulling Finn in for recon.
The romance with Donovan Caine continues, with Gin continuing to reach out to him and his morals continuing to get in the way. Gin's brooding over why Fletcher left her a folder of information regarding her family's death rings true, and we learn much more about her past and her life after Fletcher picked her up off the streets.
Estep is really good at pulling you into her world - it's easy to see Ashland, in all it's Southland and Northland glory. The relationships in the second installment of Elemental Assassin grow, with the readers learning more about the sisters JoJo and Sophie Deveroux (sp?) as well as Fletcher. Sometimes Gin's introspection feels forced, and her apparent weakness for girls around the age of 13 losing their innocence is probably something an assassin would work to fix rather than letting it run away with her.