Dark Time: Mortal Path by Dakota Banks: a promising beginning to a new series

In 1692, Susannah Layhem, who is a healer and purveyor of herbs and natural healing stands accused of witchcraft. Subsequently convicted and while awaiting her execution, she delivers her stillborn baby, alone and frightened in a filthy jail cell. She is burned at the stake, but as she dies, she is confronted by a demon named Rabishu. She is filled with anger and bitterness and accepts his offer of eternal life, in exchange for her obedience. Susannah becomes the “Black Ghost”, the personal assassin of Rabishu. Over the years, Susannah slowly regains her conscience and when Rabishu orders her to kill a baby, she discovers a way to nullify her pact with him. If she can save one life for every life she has taken over the centuries, she can become free. But if she should fail, unspeakable and never-ending punishments await her.

(Another entry in my--I've got to get caught up category. It seems like I didn't have time to write reviews, and yet, I kept reading....I'm getting close to being caught up, and it's been fun to go back through the books I've read and be reminded of what I liked about them. I might just take a walk down memory lane with my whole bookcase, just for the fun of it!)

Dark Time Mortal Path, a debut novel by Dakota Banks is an inventive and engaging novel. A bit gruesome in places, the idea behind the book is clever and original. This book is the first in a planned series and given the open ended idea of “saving a life for each one taken” and since we really aren’t privy to the number of lives the protagonist has taken, it might be quite a prolific series. The second book in the series, Sacrifice is coming out on August 31, and it will be added to the “teetering tower o’ to-be-read books”.

(Review copy provided by the publicist)

My rating: