I received this book for free from the library in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: the library
Indigo
by
Charlaine Harris, Cherie Priest, Christopher Golden, James A. Moore, Jonathan Maberry, Kat Richardson, Kelley Armstrong, Mark Morris, Seanan McGuire, Tim Lebbon
urban fantasy in Hardcover edition that was published by St. Martin's Press on June 20, 2017 and has 352 pages.
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Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Night's Edge, Death's Excellent Vacation, Must Love Hellhounds, Dead Reckoning, Bite, A Secret Rage, Home Improvement: Undead Edition, Deadlocked, An Apple for the Creature, Dead Ever After, The Sookie Stackhouse Companion, Games Creatures Play, After Dead: What Came Next in the World of Sookie Stackhouse, Night Shift, Sleep Like a Baby, The Pretenders, A Longer Fall, An Easy Death, The Russian Cage, Small Kingdoms and Other Stories, Real Murders, A Bone to Pick, Three Bedrooms, One Corpse, Dead Until Dark, The Julius House, Dead Over Heels, A Fool and His Honey, Shakespeare’s Landlord, Last Scene Alive, Shakespeare’s Champion, Poppy Done to Death, Shakespeare’s Christmas, Shakespeare’s Trollop, Shakespeare's Counselor, Boneshaker, Aftertaste, Mean Streets, Greywalker, Poltergeist, Underground, Vanished, Labyrinth, Downpour, Seawitch, Possession, Revenant, Broken, Personal Demon , Living with the Dead, Men of the Otherworld, Tales of the Otherworld, Frostbitten, Dates from Hell, Exit Strategy, Made to Be Broken, The Reckoning, Spell Bound, The Gathering, The Awakening, "Hidden", The Calling, Kisses from Hell, The Rising, Omens, Wild Justice, Enthralled: Paranormal Diversions, Visions, Deceptions, The Masked Truth, City of the Lost, Empire of Night, Forest of Ruin, Betrayals, A Darkness Absolute, Rituals, The Unquiet Past, This Fallen Prey, Stolen, Rough Justice, Dime Store Magic, Industrial Magic, Haunted, Broken, Waking the Witch, Portents, Missing, Alone in the Wild, Watcher in the Woods, Otherworld Secrets, Wherever She Goes, "The Case of the Half-Demon Spy", "Escape", Otherworld Chills, A Stranger in Town, "Bargain", Hex on the Beach, "Recruit", "Checkmate", "Framed", Cursed Luck, High Jinx, Bitten, Driven, "Forsaken", The Deepest of Secrets, "Dead Letter Days", Men of the Otherworld, The Boy Who Cried Bear, Rosemary and Rue, A Local Habitation, An Artificial Night, Late Eclipses, One Salt Sea, Discount Armageddon, “Never Shines the Sun”, Chimes at Midnight, "In Sea-Salt Tears", Indexing, The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination, Half-Off Ragnarok, Midway Relics and Dying Breeds, The Winter Long, Sparrow Hill Road, The InCryptid Prequels, Pocket Apocalypse, Black as Blood, Blocked, White as a Raven's Wing, The Ghosts of Bourbon Street, IM, "Good Girls Go to Heaven", A Red Rose Chain, "Full of Briars", Reflections, Once Broken Faith, "Dreams and Slumbers", Shadowed Souls, Chaos Choreography, Magic For Nothing, Every Heart a Doorway, Down Among the Sticks and Bones, The Brightest Fell, "Of Things Unknown", Beneath the Sugar Sky, Night and Silence, "Suffer a Sea-change", The Girl in the Green Silk Gown, "The Recitation of the Most Holy and Harrowing Pilgrimage of Mindy and Also Mork", Tricks for Free, That Ain't Witchcraft, "The Measure of a Monster", The Unkindest Tide, "Hope is Swift", Come Tumbling Down, Imaginary Numbers, "Follow the Lady", In an Absent Dream, "The Fixed Stars", "Forbid the Sea", "No Sooner Met", Across the Green Grass Fields, A Killing Frost, "Shine in Pearl", When Sorrows Come, "And with Reveling", "Singing the Comic-Con Blues”, "Candles and Starlight", "Such Dangerous Seas", Sleep No More
First in the Indigo urban fantasy series set in New York City and revolving around a nocturnal vigilante powered by shadow.
My Take
With a roster of authors of this caliber, Indigo doesn’t disappoint, and they introduce the story conflict almost immediately. It’s one that has me on the fence, tilting back and forth between don’t use it and use it and my need to know so much more about Nora’s past.
It’s a case of betrayal, I should say betrayals as there are so many of them, and such personal epiphanies in this story that tell of a greed for power. The authors create more issues for the overconfident Nora with her belief in her own powers, which using third-person protagonist point-of-view helps emphasize.
There are flashbacks occurring throughout the story with each dark revelation part of a narrative frame that slowly reveals the truth of that past in which Nora’s parents were killed…and if this doesn’t creep you out…you just ain’t right.
It’s a fascinating read knowing all these authors and seeing how they’ve merged their styles to come up with this cohesive story. Unfortunately, it’s a lot of tell, and I suspect they were so absorbed in meshing their collaborations that they overlooked making us believe the bad guys and their magic influencing others.
I was rather disappointed in the ending as well…it was simply too easy.
The Story
Influenced by monks in Nepal, Nora Hesper has used her shadow powers for years to protect others, until she realizes the truth of her memories. Memories that are false.
The Characters
Nora Hesper is an investigative journalist who works at the NYChronicle. Indigo is her alter ego, a nocturnal vigilante who can travel and control the shadows. Her cranky cats include Kelso, Red, and Hyde. Matt is her dead father and Stella her dead mother, gunned down when she was 19. Uncle Theo is all she has left.
Shelby Coughlin is her neighbor and fast-made best friend who works for a fashion designer, and so much closer than she suspects. Sam Loh is another investigative journalist working on a story about human trafficking, a former boyfriend and colleague, and current friend-with-benefits. One who’s obsessed with the unknown Indigo.
The NYChronicle is…
…the premier urban news source with a worldwide readership. Rajitha Perera is Nora’s editor. Casey Santiago is a fashion editor and a close work friend. Kenny Ortega is on the sports staff.
NYC cops
Officer Pacheco guards the fourth victim. Detectives Angela Mayhew and Hugh Symes are investigating the murders. Captain Fritz Mueller is their superior officer. Harry Beale owes Nora. Captain Ray Delaney takes over the investigation to find the Edwards children.
Victims include Maidali Ortiz; the fifteen-year-old Corinna Dewar, Tomas Soares, a future track star; and, Luis Gallardo who is a good kid. Andy Chesbro had been kidnapped last year.
The Androktasiai…
…are an order of sisters of righteous slaughter, gone astray. Selene, Megaira, and Xanthe are some of the assassin nuns.
The Children of Phonos are…
…a cult performing human sacrifices and more who are also known as the Phonoi. Charlotte Edwards was their priestess. Graham is her husband, and they have two children: Anastasia and Andel. Marshall Winton is a new member. Bonnie Alessio and Ovidio Bogdani are more members in New York. El Clan de Sangre is a Spanish branch that includes Luis, Miguel, Esteban, and Diego, siblings and extremists.
Rafe Bogdani, half-Puerto Rican and half-Albanian, and all wrong in the Kingsbridge neighborhood, is a history teacher at the local high school. Bullington is a lawyer who has represented a cultist couple, the Newells, accused of kidnapping. Matt O’Hagan is a survivor from twelve years ago.
Korkyra, a murder god, is also known as Damastes and the Butcher. Caedis is his sister murder god.
A Hykeli is a thing of air and light, created through a manifestation of pure will who can appear as real as anyone. An ombrikos is a murder golem and/or a box??
The Cover and Title
The cover has a purple background with the many authors’ names in a lighter purple providing texture. The title is in a pale blue at the very top. Centered in the background from top to toe is Nora’s shadowy figure in deeper purples, the silhouette of her body showing through the calf-length gown she wears.
The title is Nora’s other self, the Indigo who controls and moves through shadows.
