Book and Audio Review: Cast in Shadow by Michelle Sagara

Cast in Shadow
Author: Michelle Sagara
Series: The Chronicles of Elantra (Book 1)
Publication: MIRA; Original Edition (June 1, 2016)

Description: Book 1 in the Chronicles of Elantra fantasy series by  New York Times bestselling author Michelle Sagara

Seven years ago Kaylin fled the crime-riddled streets of Nightshade, knowing that something was after her. Children were being murdered—and all had the same odd markings that mysteriously appeared on her own skin.…

Since then, she's learned to read, she's learned to fight and she's become one of the vaunted Hawks who patrol and police the City of Elantra. Alongside the winged Aerians and the immortal Barrani, she's made a place for herself, far from the mean streets of her birth.

But children are once again dying, and a dark and familiar pattern is emerging. Kaylin is ordered back into Nightshade with a partner she knows she can't trust, a Dragon lord for a companion and a device to contain her powers—powers that no other human has. Her task is simple—find the killer, stop the murders…and survive the attentions of those who claim to be her allies!

My Thoughts: The first book in the Chronicles of Elantra introduces Kaylin Neya. She is the youngest member of the Hawks - one of three branches of law enforcement in the city of Elantra. She was born and raised in the lawless fiefs but escaped them as a young teen ager. She bears strange and potentially dangerous marks on her arms and thighs. 

She left the fiefs after her protector. an older boy named Severn, killed the two younger children who lived with them. He believed that their deaths were necessary to save Kaylin from being found and sacrificed because of those strange marks. 

Kaylin has made a new life for herself among the Hawks. She has learned to read and write. She has learned the two languages she needs for her job as a Hawk. She has learned weapons. She has also learned to use her magical ability to heal even though she doesn't understand it. What she hasn't learned is magic or politics or anything else that she doesn't believe has a practical use in her work as a Hawk.

But now the murders of children have begun again in the fief of Nightshade and Kaylin is sent back in with a dragon named Tiamaris and that boy she ran from now grown and also a member of the Hawks. She has to deal with the Barrani outcaste who is Lord Nightshade and she has to track down the ones who are killing children.

To do her job, she has to confront her own magic and learn more about it when little more is known by anyone currently alive. 

This was an excellent start to a new fantasy series. I combined reading this one and listening to the Audible recording of the book. Khristine Hvam did an excellent job with the narration. I liked her distinctive voices for the characters. The pacing was also excellent.

Favorite Quote:

Silence had never been her strength. She might have hated people who felt the need to cram a lot of words into a silence just to fill it, but she was honest enough to know that she hovered on the edge of being one of them. Silences were barbed in unexpected ways, with words, you generally knew where the traps were.

But there were some times when words were so inadequate it was almost obscene to use them.

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.