A Talon's Wrath: An Urban Fantasy Thriller

Riftborn, Book 3

By: Steve McHugh

Narrated by: Matthew Wolf

Lucas Rurik faces unwanted celebrity, ancient enemies, and dangerous zealots in a thrilling urban-fantasy noir from the author of the Hellequin Chronicles.

Centuries of life experience inside and outside the Rift couldn’t prepare former Raven Guild member and riftborn detective Lucas Rurik for his latest set of challenges. First, when his capture of a prominent political figure “trends” on social networks, he finds himself the target of both the media and the public. Then, Noah Kaya, an Ancient, tracks him down for help on a job. As a rule, Lucas doesn’t trust the Ancients; they always seem to have an ulterior motive. But something about this gig just won’t let Lucas say no.

It seems one of Noah’s close friends disappeared right after becoming the lead suspect in a murder case. The problem is the guy in question isn’t the type to knock someone off. Not to mention a whole lot of rift-walkers have recently gone missing, the crime scene reeks of pure rift energy, and a deranged killer who Lucas thought was long deceased might not actually be dead after all.

Soon, what was originally a simple search for a missing person devolves into a dangerous game of cat and mouse with an age-old enemy—and it could bring Lucas face-to-face with Dr. Callie Mitchell, the depraved scientist he’s been hunting for months . . .

©2023 Steve McHugh (P)2023 Podium Audio

4.25 Stars 🌟

I have found that I really like Steve McHugh as an author. I believe that I've read all of his various series and think I've read pretty much everything he has written. So, I was excited when I saw that there was a new book out in the Riftborn series.

This is the third book in his latest series that has us following along as the male MC Lucas Rurik continues to navigate life after 2000+ years as a Riftborn. I've mentioned this in previous reviews, but the world that he has created for this series is extremely unique. The worldbuilding is rich and is still expanding, even after three books in. Things like the RCU (the Rift Crime Unit - which is similar to the FBI, but for supernatural entities), and the addition and expansion of Guilds and the Ancients make this a very fun read.

Lucas is a great MC. He has just the right balance of arrogance, tempered with abilities to back it up, and a really, really dry sense of humor that not everybody thinks is funny.

This case brings back a villain from previous books but for some reason, to me she lost a little bit of her diabolicness - see, I made up a word. Trying to say her combination of being diabolical and being a villain :)

Anyway, I REALLY didn't like her before, but to me this time she was just more of a "meh". This was not my favorite book of the series, but it did move the overall story forward and as I mentioned before, the world is continuing to expand as we learn more and more about it.

I especially enjoyed getting to see more of the special relationship that Lucas has with one of his familiars (They are called something other than familiars but I'm drawing a blank at the moment).

I listened to most of this on audio and the narration was done by Matthew Wolf who has been the narrator on the previous books of this series as well. As always, I LOVE hearing that British accent for Lucas' character and all of the other rich offerings of the other various accents.

Another masterpiece

You just have to love the adventure, that Steve McHugh's mind takes you on.

Pretty Good

Something was missing from this book. There was a lot of action and the plot was okay, but it barely held my interest. I'll get the next book to see how the characters and storyline develop.