No Humans Involved
Kelley Armstrong
Published 2007 342 pages
Synopsis
It’s the most anticipated reality television event of the season: three spiritualists gathered in one house to raise the ghost of Marilyn Monroe. For renowned medium Jaime Vegas there’s just one problem. Unlike her colleagues, Jaime is the real deal: and she knows that the house is truly haunted. Not by dead film stars, but by something even stranger and much more disturbing…
A tragic mystery lurks in the maze of gardens behind the house: trapped spirits that only Jaime can here, spirits that refuse to let her rest. Distraught, she looks to her fellow supernaturals for help.
As the whispers within the garden grow more frantic, Jaime – and the attractive and unobtainable werewolf Jeremy Danvers – are forced to embark on an investigation into a shocking underworld of black magic and ritual sacrifice.
As events culminate in a psychic showdown, Jaime must use the darkest power she has to defeat a terrifying and previously unforeseen enemy.
The Review
No Humans Involved is the seventh book in the Otherworld series by best selling fantasy author Kelley Armstrong. Each novel is a stand-alone story and while you don’t have to read the books in order, characters often refer to past events that have happened in the previous books so it might be less confusing to read them in sequence.
Established fans of the Otherworld novels will know that some of the books concentrate on werewolves with stories told in first person by Elena (a rare female werewolf) and other books concentrate more on magic and are told in first person different narrators.
No Humans Involved is narrated in first person by Jaime Vegas - a character who has already appeared in several previous books in this series. Jaime is a necromancer. She can communicate with ghosts and has the power to raise and control the dead in the form of zombies. As well as being a necromancer Jaime is also a glamorous celebrity and a woman who wants to be noticed by alpha werewolf Jeremy as well as be taken more seriously by her supernatural peers.
Jaime’s character comes across as warm, likeable, realistic and a little frustrated at not being allowed a more active role in investigating supernatural problems. This frustration soon leads her into plenty of dangerous situations as she becomes determined to prove that she can take part.
No Humans Involved encompasses a diverse supernatural world of zombies, ghosts, angels, werewolves, witches and magic. What about vampires - I hear you cry! Well actually I have to ‘fess up that there really aren’t any vampires in No Humans Involved. Vampires are mentioned in passing because they exist in the Otherworld universe but there aren’t any vampire characters in this story. Sorry.
Apart from the lack of vampires No Humans Involved has everything else an urban fantasy reader could want, supernatural thrills, a solid mystery plot, plenty of action and a little romance. Well written, exciting and fast paced (and published in hardback) No Humans Involved is definitely worth the extra money for the hardback edition.
Recommended reading.
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Related Links
Read reviews of other books by this author
Kelley Armstrong has many original short stories and a novella about the characters and creatures from her published books on her website (just follow the Extras link to ‘Online Fiction’.) Visit Kelley’s website.
Other recommended books
Broken by Kelley Armstrong
For A Few Demons More by Kim Harrison
Dead Beat by Jim Butcher
All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris
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