In SIN'S DARK CARESS, our heroine is Dr. Bianca Sin, a forensic witch who works through a special branch of law enforcement that investigates crimes of a mystical nature in this alternate New York City. Bianca is working alongside homicide detective Lancelot McManus and they've been investigating gruesome murders in which a familiar symbol has been painted nearby. The bloody symbol stands for the Dark Brethren, a mysterious organization behind many of the city's crimes involving the magical community. This series has a unique blend of various supernatural creatures that exist alongside the human world such as vampires (Aeternus), Animalians (shifters of different animal species), witches, dragons, and so many more. I thoroughly enjoyed the intense detailing of the world-building in this series.

This novel is considered urban fantasy and I even go as far as label it a dark urban fantasy due to the graphic murder scenes and violence. The murder scenes are even more grisly because they involve young pregnant women who have their babies carved out of the womb. Bianca and McManus are desperate to stop these killings and find the missing babies before the Dark Brethren can finally manifest themselves fully into the world. The people who once comprised this group are no longer corporeal and need new bodies to inhabit in order to bring about their dark reign of terror. Although the violence in this book is graphic, it is necessary to the story and kept me quite engaged as I waited breathlessly to get to the climax of the story.

SIN'S DARK CARESS is the third book in the Dark Brethren series by Tracey O'Hara. Although this book is a part of a series, I felt that you could read the novel as a stand-alone without much confusion. Luckily, the author also provides a glossary of terms to define aspects of her unique world building that otherwise might not be clear to a new reader. The romance is secondary to the story and there is very little of it, but it's obvious that Bianca and McManus have a strong attraction to one another and I do hope that the author continues their storyline in the next book. There were some spelling errors that I noticed while reading and I had a published copy and not an uncorrected proof. Even with the noticeable errors, the story was so engaging that I was able to bypass them with ease and it did not detract from my reading experience at all.

Book Summary

An ancient darkness has risen from the ashes . . . and terror has been loosed upon an unsuspecting world.

Forensic witch Bianca Sin has never seen anything like it: homeless teenage girls torn to pieces by dark magic in the cold shadows of the city. More terrifying still is the symbol written in blood on an alley wall—the unmistakable seal of the Dark Brethren.

Teaming up with NYPD homicide detective Lancelot McManus and an elite task force headed by the shapeshifter Oberon DuPrie, Bianca knows her worst fears have finally come to pass. A new war of annihilation is looming that will plunge the worlds of vampire, shapeshifter, and human into chaos—and two adversarial tribes locked in uneasy truce will need to take up arms together to save the children. Trust will be essential for Sin and McManus, as the hunt forces them to confront their deepest terrors.

For the ultimate evil is no longer approaching.

It's here.