A Single Light (Odyssey Books)
by Patricia Leslie
Okay, I’m a sucker for detective stories, plucky journalists who doggedly pursue a story, medical thrillers, or something new in the paranormal field. A Single Light is all of these, and the new factor is ghouls who live among us–ghouls–some of whom are the good guys.
Legendary lone-wolf reporter Rick Hendry, with his badgered female coworker, get sucked into this mess of intrigue and murder via two channels. One is a policeman who has a Mulder Moment and realizes that a lot of missing persons and what looks like a bizarre serial killer are probably related. Rick might have blown him off, but then there was that second factor. Those lifelike, impossible dreams. Dreams that had him recognizing the crime scenes through someone else’ eyes.
The reporter friend ends up involving a forensic pathologist, and she’s caught up in the “no known human alleles” DNA results of her latest slabbed patient. An internet search and an inhuman DNA sequencing later, due to horrific events they are all drawn into the inescapable conclusion that something is indeed out there. But then they meet one of the Hunters, Lael. She has the same inhuman nature as the hungry Bledray but is protective of humans rather than lethal in intent. There are not enough Hunters, and she needs all their help. Because the Bledray are Gathering, and about to hit a species event/tipping point where if they are not stopped they will hit critical mass and destroy all of humanity.
