Waking the Witch/Kelley Armstrong

Waking the Witch (Otherworld series, vol 11), by Kelley Armstrong; mystery, urban fantasy; 320 pages

I've been following this series closely, and enjoying it, but I felt that the last few books had fallen short of the earlier volumes. This one, though, is probably one of the best series entries so far. The main character is Savannah Levine, a half witch/half sorcerer introduced as a 12-year-old in the second book. Here, she's grown into a 21-year-old who's eager to prove herself as a private investigator. The book is mostly a mystery novel with supernatural trappings (using a spell to remain unseen while eavesdropping on suspects, for example). There are a few romantic leads that don't really get resolved in this book, and some references to earlier books that might be confusing for people new to the series, but overall, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The last few pages of this book pretty clearly state the plot of the next volume, and I'll be interested to see what Armstrong does with her characters.