WRAITH HUNTER is completely charming, walking the line between intense fight scenes and witty one-liners. Cal Kinsey is both self-deprecating and ambitious. He wants to be a key member of the DSI team, but PTSD has him second-guessing and acting rashly. A full night’s rest would help his thinking, but there’s always another bomb, another kidnapping, another vampire that takes up his attention. It gets to the point that every diversion puts you on edge because these characters need to sleep dammit.

There are no pulled-punches in the novel. Characters are hurt and they feel it. That split knuckle? Yeah, they’re gonna feel it next time they punch someone. Cal isn’t the hero of his own story. He wants to be, but there’s so many badasses on his team that it’s hard to stand out. Sure, he can take down a couple perps but there’s always an awesome blade master that’ll take down 10 more to help Cal out. The DSI team runs like a well-oiled machine, even though Cal might agonize over being a burden.

I hadn’t read the previous books but I never felt overwhelmed. However, knowing the events of the previous novels would definitely help understand the importance of the plot twists. WRAITH HUNTER seems to tie up loose ends from the previous two novels and also set up the next. There are new players that are sure to cause havoc in the future. Even better, a new romance heats up between Cal and a team member. The romance starts so slowly and sweetly that by the end of the novel I literally squee’d. WRAITH HUNTER is a perfect procedural. The crime scenes matter, the victims matter, and the evidence matters. Even better, WRAITH HUNTER stresses that being a member of a team is more fun than going rogue.

I was intrigued. Enough to go find books one and two, because this isn't a stand alone. Overall? Really enjoyed it, and will look forward for more!

Magic and mayhem are loose again and it's Cal's job to figure out the who, where, and why of it all. The only problem is that the longer he takes to find answers, the more people might end up dying in the end. It's a race against time and Cal's pretty sure he lost the moment the first building exploded.

This book was the best in the series so far. It had all the things I really liked in the previous books--the brilliant characterizations, an engaging plot, and wonderful world building--and it somehow also managed to feel unique and new at the same time. I was hooked from the first page until the end and am absolutely looking forward to the next book in the series.

The only issue I had with the story was a stylistic choice Coulson made. At the beginning of every chapter was a one sentence explanation telling the reader exactly what was going to happen later on in that chapter. It did make for good foreshadowing, but it also lessened some of the level of drama.

Wraith Hunter, City of Crows 3, Clara Coulson

Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre: Mystery and Thrillers, sci-fi and Fantasy

This is turning out to be a cracking series, seems to be full of drama, action, puzzles, danger and each day seems to bring Cal and the crew into more of it. It's not quite like that though, when this story opens its some months after that action of the last book, the gang have taken time to heal from the incredible injuries they incurred back then and that's as it should be.
When a book is day after day of non stop action it makes me think" who dealt with all this before?” and “who will do xyz when this gang are gone?"
Spaced out over time feels much more fluid and natural than the one-drama-on-top-of-another story lines too many books have. 


The last two books have proved to be openers for more action, and I love that the vampire who was the catalyst for Cal joining the DSI is in this book, and of course wonder about him and his actions. Are they as cut and dried as they seemed? Or is he just as much a victim of circumstance. Or maybe its just his job, that's going to make him p iss off a lot of people, maybe it is all about the money for him. Who knows? He's an intriguing character and I want to read more of him.

I love Cal, he's a great lead, talented and yet flawed too, he knows he doesn't have all the answers, knows his limitations but throws himself in wholeheartedly when he believes its needed regardless of the cost to himself. 
Erica, oh I hated that bit, what she needed to do, and why she felt she had no alternative. fingers crossed that all works out well.
Cooper - a surprise there? Or not, maybe its another red herring - though book one made me wonder if that might happen. I love storylines that make me wonder what if, and how come, and maybe this will....you know the sort, where you get so involved with characters you think of them as real. 
The rest of the gang are there, with a few new guys ( and ladies) joining in and it was great seeing them all again. Like meeting old friends, and making new ones.

Its a fabulous read once more, things to puzzle out, drama and action, dangers, and speaking of which, those elevating zombies - what fun they were. The sly humour that had them dressed up in long coats and carrying scythes.
Its little touches like that which lift this novel up, give some levity to the dark dramas surrounding some of the main plots. There are other little touches worked in too, moments of humour, things that make these characters feel real. We all crack jokes at inappropriate times, that's the kind of human way of dealing with stress and fright and it works so well here. Thats what separate a good book from the crowd, the little extras that keep us reading.

The plots in this part wrap up well, but open up the wider one that's been building, and I really want to read more right now!!  

Stars: five, another rivetting instalment, whetting my appitite for more. I know when this series is ended its going to be one I reread right through, in a back-to-back reading fest. I love to read series like that, get fully immersed in another world.

ARC supplied for review purposes by Netgalley and Publishers