Sins of the Angels by Linda Poitevin

Title: Sins of the Angels (The Grigori Legacy, #1)
Author: Linda Poitevin
Genre: Crime, Urban Fantasy
Publisher: ACE (27th September 2011)
Blurb:

A detective with a secret lineage. An undercover Hunter with a bulletproof soul. And a world made to pay for the sins of an 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 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.

Rating: ***(3 stars)
Review:

Sins of the Angels and The Grigori Legacy have been on my want to read pile for a while, I just never added it to my Amazon basket for various reasons. Knowing Linda Poitevin through Twitter made me feel a little guilty about it, but it just wasn’t the right time. When I did get my hands on a copy of Sins of the Angels I was really looking forward to starting it.

Sins of the Angels surprised me, because as I understood it, it focused on Angels so I went into it expecting a typical urban fantasy novel with a side of crime genre. This was not what I got. First and foremost Sins of the Angels is crime fiction – a detective novel, that just so happens to have angels in it. To be honest the crime genre is pretty hit and miss with me, I much prefer watching events unfold rather than reading them unfold. Having said that, I quite enjoy dipping into an Agatha Christie novel or reading Kathy Reichs’ Temperance Brennan series. I also enjoy a good urban fantasy or paranormal with a dose of crime/detective fiction. And once I got used to the idea that Sins of the Angels was actually mainly a detective novel I fell into the story.

Linda Poitevin has obviously done a lot research for this novel. The crime scenes, and Detective Alexandra Jarvis seemed very realistic and believable. I actually enjoyed the contrast between the world of the police, and the world of the angels. Poitevin has also done a lot of research about the angel aspect of the novel, and what I really enjoyed was that she created her own characters and didn’t just build on well-known angels/archangels like Gabriel or Michael.

Alex Jarvis was a really compelling character. I liked her in part because she was a strong believable female lead, and partly because she was what I’d want a good police officer to be – she believes in the law she upholds and she believes in justice. I also liked the fact that although she’s a bit of a lone wolf, she has a strong connection with her sister. Aramael was . . . interesting. I found Aramael – and actually all the other angels – difficult to relate to, but I think Poitevin did this for a reason – because angels are different from humans, other.

If you like crime fiction and are looking for something with a bit of a twist then you should definitely consider reading Sins of the Angels. In the end I really enjoyed Sins of the Angels, and found myself at the end before I realised it so I’m looking forward to getting my hands on Sins of the Son, the second book in the series, and finding out what happens next.