2nd of the Diana Tregarde mysteries - wonderfully exciting and scary! This is the second Diana Tregarde books - after "Children of the Night" - and it is a terrific book. In it, Diana is called to Texas by her old friend Mark Valdez, to investigate a grisly series of murders and animal mutilation. At first stymied, she eventually learns that someone is apparently trying to call down the old Aztec god known in English as Smoking Mirror and is calling himself Burning Water. This is a fascinating book, bringing in aspects of Aztec and Mestizo culture as well as referring to the older culture of the Toltecs. Lots of near scrapes for Diana makes this one a quick read. A must-have in the library of anyone who likes Mercedes Lackey in general, who enjoyed the earlier Anita Blake books and/or the new works by Kim Harrison.
Interesting...but slow It took two tries to get into the book inorder to finish it. It starts off the slowest of any Mercedes Lackey book. However that said it's very interesting with the Aztecs/Incans byline and the second half of the book is very good. Her other Diana Tregarde book, Children of the Night is much better.
I did find it odd that the story takes place in the 90's until I looked at the publication date in that same decade. I had never heard of these novels until now.I wish I hadn't spent money on this one. I read this a few years ago and it was terrible. The book in general is not very well written and I had to push myself to finish it. Every so often the book veers away from the plot so the preachy heroine can go on a goody goody witch rant. She's so annoying, I wanted to reach in the book and slap her. When I did finish it, instead of giving it away or keeping it-I threw it in the trash.
