I remember when I first found this book. It was so exciting and new because very few authors were writing this type of fantasy/suspense/paranormal story. I have since learned this type of book is labeled as Urban Fantasy. I devoured this book and wanted more. Specifically, I liked the guardian theme and pairing up the paranormal with the "normal". Happily, after this first book, two more followed, and then nothing. So you can imagine my surprise after waiting several years, I looked up the author's website to find out why no more books in this series were being written.
It has very little to do with Mark and Diane. It has more to do with not enough people reading this series as well as a crazy sect of people who declared that Ms. Lackey was sharing secret society information about the "Guardians". If you want to read from an author's perspective of what happened and some of the kooky things going on to her for this series - here's a link. It is a bit unhinged what people sent to Ms. Lackey and I have to say, I don't know what would happen in today's world when this happened over two decades ago.
Back to the books, the investigative parts of this 3 books unfinished series is what pulled me to them. I liked reading about alternative ways to fight crime. It reminds me of a few comic books that I liked but turned into a full novel. In addition, it is written by a female writer which at that time was key. Why? Because I found that female authors tend to write characters in a way that I could either relate to or understand better. The characters were more three-dimensional. I also found that Mark and Diane's flaws helped them balance each other out. They became a stronger pairing to figure out what was going on. I look back at my reading history and I believe this is one of my very first urban fantasy reads. Ms. Lackey is consistently a first in many fantasy/sci-fi categories for me. Her writings influenced an entire genre and many writers today. This urban fantasy is recommended to readers who want to see a bit of Ms. Lackey's old-school writing.
