Skin Deep by T.G. Ayer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I received a copy of this book at no cost from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Another in a string of strong stories by TG Ayer.
I have to admit, Skin Deep got off to a bit of a slower start than most of her other books that I’ve read, but once the story really got underway — which didn’t take too long — it was a very enjoyable ride.
Skin Deep is part of Ayer’s Dark World universe, an alternate take on our world in which a number of various paranormal creatures live mostly hidden alongside humans. These include Skinwalkers (aka “shifters,”) mages, Immortals, Death-talkers, Wraiths and more. It is the first book in her Skinwalker series, one of two (so far) set in this universe. The other is the Soultracker series, which I am also reading. I’m really hooked on her stuff!
At its core, Skin Deep is a police procedural / mystery — but it’s a well-written one. The case involves the discovery of a gruesome murder by our heroine, the Panther shifter Kai (short for Kailin) Odel. While she usually divides her time between hunting Wraiths and counseling troubled teens who come to the clinic where she works, she gets pulled into the investigation when she realizes the victim is also a shifter and then finds that other shifters have disappeared as well.
Kai is a great lead character. She’s as tough as one would expect given her dual occupations, but she has enough vulnerability to make her believable and endearing. Her romance with Logan Westin, an investigator assigned to the case, is sweet, if a bit too quick to start (something I’ve noticed in a few of Ayer’s books, though when she decides to play with the romantic formula — as she did in her Valkyrie series — it’s very effective and a great change of pace!) Logan is well-developed, and it’s fun to watch Kai trying to figure out the effect he has on her before she discovers what he is.
I enjoyed this book quite a bit. There’s a nice collection of side characters — some of whom also appear in the Soultracker series, neatly tying the stories into the same world — and I look forward to following Kai and Logan’s story in the rest of the series.
