Showing The Burning by Nancy Holder

The Burning is the action-packed first volume of the "Unseen" trilogy. It's also the first crossover novel linking "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel". Buffy, Angel and their friends become involved with several apparently separate problems involving black magic, runaway teenagers, street gangs and police corruption. In Sunnydale, Nicky de la Natividad, the brother of a friend of Willows, has become involved with a powerful gang, the Latin Cobras. He invokes ancient Aztec magic to render himself invulnerable to harm, but his meddling unleashes dangerous forces. In order to fight them Buffy and Willow travel to LA, where Buffy is not looking forward to encroaching on Angel's turf. Meanwhile, Angel is called in to investigate the case of Rojelio Flores, who has been wrongfully arrested for murder. Both the jail and Rojelio's home appear to be possessed, with objects flying around by themselves. While Angel is trying to protect the Flores family, Cordelia meets a group of runaway girls who want to become vampires. The book ends with Buffy and Angel arguing as they face danger together, nicely set up for volume two: Door to Alternity. There's a lot going on, and as yet very few answers, but Nancy Holder and Jeff Mariotte are both veterans of the Buffyverse, and the reader is free to enjoy the ride, confident that everything will come clear by the end of volume three, Long Way Home. If the other two volumes match this one, it will be an exhilarating experience. --Elizabeth Sourbut