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Preternatural Affairs #4-7
Preternatural Affairs, Books 4-7: Shadow Burns, Deadly Wrong, Ashes and Arsenic, and Once Darkness Falls
Cèsar Hawke's job with the OPA is maturing into a job that involves a suspicious number of dead bodies. From steamy Los Angeles to post-apocalyptic Reno, Cèsar's getting deeper into preternatural trouble by the moment.
A collection of four New York Times bestselling author SM Reine's books. Included are Shadow Burns, Deadly Wrong, Ashes and Arsenic, and Once Darkness Falls.
ABOUT SHADOW BURNS
When more than a dozen people die at a retirement home, the official story is carbon monoxide poisoning. Cèsar Hawke is convinced the reason is less mundane and more infernal. But that’s his job. As an agent working for the Office of Preternatural Affairs, he’s always looking for supernatural answers to deadly questions.
Isobel Stonecrow agrees to help him find the truth. With her powers of necrocognition, she can speak to the dead and get the real story.
But when they return to the crime scene, they find a lot more than cadavers. They find a nightmare that they can’t escape—a nightmare from Isobel’s past, which even she can’t completely remember thanks to the contract that signed away her soul.
Cèsar will have to disinter Isobel’s secrets to save her. He’ll learn who Isobel used to be, what she’s done, and the price she paid…no matter how deadly the knowledge might be.
ABOUT DEADLY WRONG
Isobel Stonecrow’s life has an expiration date: One month, two weeks, four days, and six hours remaining.
Not that she’s counting.
When she signed a contract giving her soul and memories to a demon named Ander, she didn’t expect that she would ever have to face termination. But now Ander is dead and she’ll be following suit if she can’t find a way to dissolve the deal.
Too bad she can’t remember anything from the time before she signed the contract.
Fritz Friederling, a billionaire demon hunter who owns several businesses in Hell, isn’t ready to give up on Isobel. But she isn’t sure that working with Fritz is better than dying. She doesn’t know much about her past life, but she knows that she signed Ander’s contract for a reason—and that getting away from Fritz was a significant part of it.
Escaping her contract means remembering the life that she chose to forget. And it means trusting Fritz Friederling, who Isobel fears might be the biggest danger of all…
ABOUT ASHES AND ARSENIC
Agent Cèsar Hawke is in his element when he’s investigating magical crime. And with his boss out of town, Cèsar gets to pick which cases he works on. He’s bent on doing nothing involving demons, zombies, or fallen angels this time. Instead, he’s going to find the witch who used magic to rob a bank.
Easy stuff. Cèsar plans to catch the perp before his boss gets home.
But when he digs into the robbery, he finds much more than missing money. He also finds a deadly turf battle between two covens and a trail of bloody violence.
A trail that leads directly to his brother, Domingo Hawke.
Domingo wants Cèsar’s help taking down his enemies. Forget that Cèsar works for the Office of Preternatural Affairs, forget allegiances, forget pesky “contracts” and “conduct.” Domingo is calling in a favor and the Hawke family is too tight to refuse.
Blood is the most powerful ingredient in any witch’s spell, after all…
ABOUT ONCE DARKNESS FALLS
The worst case scenario has happened: Reno NV has fallen to d
A collection of four New York Times bestselling author SM Reine's books. Included are Shadow Burns, Deadly Wrong, Ashes and Arsenic, and Once Darkness Falls.
ABOUT SHADOW BURNS
When more than a dozen people die at a retirement home, the official story is carbon monoxide poisoning. Cèsar Hawke is convinced the reason is less mundane and more infernal. But that’s his job. As an agent working for the Office of Preternatural Affairs, he’s always looking for supernatural answers to deadly questions.
Isobel Stonecrow agrees to help him find the truth. With her powers of necrocognition, she can speak to the dead and get the real story.
But when they return to the crime scene, they find a lot more than cadavers. They find a nightmare that they can’t escape—a nightmare from Isobel’s past, which even she can’t completely remember thanks to the contract that signed away her soul.
Cèsar will have to disinter Isobel’s secrets to save her. He’ll learn who Isobel used to be, what she’s done, and the price she paid…no matter how deadly the knowledge might be.
ABOUT DEADLY WRONG
Isobel Stonecrow’s life has an expiration date: One month, two weeks, four days, and six hours remaining.
Not that she’s counting.
When she signed a contract giving her soul and memories to a demon named Ander, she didn’t expect that she would ever have to face termination. But now Ander is dead and she’ll be following suit if she can’t find a way to dissolve the deal.
Too bad she can’t remember anything from the time before she signed the contract.
Fritz Friederling, a billionaire demon hunter who owns several businesses in Hell, isn’t ready to give up on Isobel. But she isn’t sure that working with Fritz is better than dying. She doesn’t know much about her past life, but she knows that she signed Ander’s contract for a reason—and that getting away from Fritz was a significant part of it.
Escaping her contract means remembering the life that she chose to forget. And it means trusting Fritz Friederling, who Isobel fears might be the biggest danger of all…
ABOUT ASHES AND ARSENIC
Agent Cèsar Hawke is in his element when he’s investigating magical crime. And with his boss out of town, Cèsar gets to pick which cases he works on. He’s bent on doing nothing involving demons, zombies, or fallen angels this time. Instead, he’s going to find the witch who used magic to rob a bank.
Easy stuff. Cèsar plans to catch the perp before his boss gets home.
But when he digs into the robbery, he finds much more than missing money. He also finds a deadly turf battle between two covens and a trail of bloody violence.
A trail that leads directly to his brother, Domingo Hawke.
Domingo wants Cèsar’s help taking down his enemies. Forget that Cèsar works for the Office of Preternatural Affairs, forget allegiances, forget pesky “contracts” and “conduct.” Domingo is calling in a favor and the Hawke family is too tight to refuse.
Blood is the most powerful ingredient in any witch’s spell, after all…
ABOUT ONCE DARKNESS FALLS
The worst case scenario has happened: Reno NV has fallen to d
- GenresUrban Fantasy
753 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 5, 2016
36 people are currently reading
49 people want to read
About the author
S.M. Reine
114 books2,006 followersHi everyone! My name is Sara, and I write urban fantasy and paranormal novels as SM Reine. I collect swords, cat hair, and typewriters (which I do use for writing!). It's a good day when those three things have nothing to do with each other.
If you would like to know the instant my next book is available, you should enlist in my Army of Evil! We have a wicked cool secret handshake, but you'll have to sign up to learn it. ;) Check it out -- http://smarturl.it/armyofevil
If you would like to know the instant my next book is available, you should enlist in my Army of Evil! We have a wicked cool secret handshake, but you'll have to sign up to learn it. ;) Check it out -- http://smarturl.it/armyofevil
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 19, 2020
Better
Cèsar is a little less obvious with the running sexism and his internal monologue of inappropriate comments about women has dialled back to a degree that doesn't make it quite so blatant. This is an improvement as it's really an unnecessary thread and it was becoming rather too much and drawing away from the actual story.
In this second box set we get, amongst other things, the full background between Friederling and Isobel, in a book that really doesn't involve the other characters and seems to not fit being paced much more slowly and steadily, it seemed odd but as you continue to the remaining books it fills in the important background and completes some of the unexplained issues from earlier ones.
The Union and Lucretia have a greater presence as the story developed and this runs parallel to the Descent series which stars Elise and James, although they don't play much of a part barring a few mentions I think it was right to read those first.
Kindle isn't great at providing information about reading order.. neither are the authors.. to be honest I really do believe that they should put it in the blurbs when a single story splits into so many constituent parts.. reading in the wrong order can leave too many gaping holes to fix and also make reading earlier books you've missed feel a chore as you already know some of the outcomes. I don't actually want to have to register for separate author websites to obtain information that they should be providing up front.. it's in their interests to ensure that readers have the right information about order to read in.. we shouldn't have to hunt it down or sign up to obtain it.
Cèsar is a little less obvious with the running sexism and his internal monologue of inappropriate comments about women has dialled back to a degree that doesn't make it quite so blatant. This is an improvement as it's really an unnecessary thread and it was becoming rather too much and drawing away from the actual story.
In this second box set we get, amongst other things, the full background between Friederling and Isobel, in a book that really doesn't involve the other characters and seems to not fit being paced much more slowly and steadily, it seemed odd but as you continue to the remaining books it fills in the important background and completes some of the unexplained issues from earlier ones.
The Union and Lucretia have a greater presence as the story developed and this runs parallel to the Descent series which stars Elise and James, although they don't play much of a part barring a few mentions I think it was right to read those first.
Kindle isn't great at providing information about reading order.. neither are the authors.. to be honest I really do believe that they should put it in the blurbs when a single story splits into so many constituent parts.. reading in the wrong order can leave too many gaping holes to fix and also make reading earlier books you've missed feel a chore as you already know some of the outcomes. I don't actually want to have to register for separate author websites to obtain information that they should be providing up front.. it's in their interests to ensure that readers have the right information about order to read in.. we shouldn't have to hunt it down or sign up to obtain it.
February 2, 2020
An the shocks keep rolling in. Relationship lines keep blurring and good and bad become more and more or a grey area. And the OPA? And the Union? Partners keeping secrets? It’s all there, and by the end, I cannot wait for the next one. Pity the next three books aren’t neatly tied in a bundle...
I like this series. Each book is a nearly wrapped up for anyone who does not want to continue the series, and yet leaving enough to pick up on, should you choose to continue.
I like this series. Each book is a nearly wrapped up for anyone who does not want to continue the series, and yet leaving enough to pick up on, should you choose to continue.
July 16, 2018
Soooooo good!
I loved all of these books. I really enjoyed the last 3 and how Elise and her story was connected to Hawk’s. I cannot wait to see what happens next! Highly recommended series!
I loved all of these books. I really enjoyed the last 3 and how Elise and her story was connected to Hawk’s. I cannot wait to see what happens next! Highly recommended series!
September 25, 2025
This series had its up and downs book wise but overall really interesting plot and characters I genuinely really like and good added world building to this universe!!!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews