With Unperfect Souls, the latest in the Connor Grey series, we’re well and thoroughly into the action at this point. If you’re new to the Connor Greys, this is not the book to start with.

Thanks to the events at the tail end of the last book (Unfallen Dead), the Dead of the fey no longer have access to Tir Na Nog–and now they’re roaming free in the mortal world, and on the streets of the Weird in Boston. Having the Dead on the loose is nine kinds of trouble in a district already fraught with tensions, as Connor discovers when he’s called to investigate the decapitation of one of the Dead, the only way they can be permanently destroyed. We get a side helping as well of Connor learning quite a bit more about the darkness in his head–and what he can do with it.

And what it can do to him.

This is definitely the darkest of the Connor Greys so far, and I’m not sure yet what I think about the new plot twist of Connor’s darkness seeming poised to turn him into the druid version of a leanansidhe. One does hope that he’ll eventually be pulled back from this, but it’ll be interesting indeed to see how many more books this plotline will carry through. Meanwhile, Connor’s relationship with Meryl is deepening, of which I approve; I’m coming more to appreciate a series that can focus on a single relationship and develop it across books rather than having the protagonist swap out partners every three or four books or so. Well done, Mark Del Franco! Four stars.