No Humans Involved by Kelley Armstrong 04/21/08

Jaime Vegas, who we originally met in Industrial Magic, is the narrator for this book in the Women of the Otherworld series. Jaime is a necromancer which means that she can communicate with the dead. In some books, like Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series, a necromancer doesn’t talk to ghosts, she raises and controls the dead. Hamilton’s Anita Blake is that sort of necromancer. Jaime CAN raise the dead but it’s not something she does routinely. In fact, though she knows it’s possible, it’s in NHI that she raises her first dead person.

The story begins with Jaime being invited to participate in a television special about “spiritualists” who claim they can talk to the dead. The show’s producers want Jaime, and 2 others, to have a séance and find out who or what killed Marilyn Monroe. Jaime is the only one among the three who is actually “gifted.” Things begin to go awry, however, when Jaime is pestered by a type of ghost she has never encounted. With the help of Eve, Kristof, Jeremy and a new character, Hope, Jaime helps these ghosts.

No Humans Involved was more of a page turner than other books. Armstrong more fully developed characters from previous books. Jeremy, for instance. The reader learns a lot about Jeremy and why he is the way he is.

At the risk of sounding too much like a fan, this series just keeps getting better and better.