• Complain

Laurell Hamilton - Divine Misdemeanors

Here you can read online Laurell Hamilton - Divine Misdemeanors full text of the book (entire story) in english for free. Download pdf and epub, get meaning, cover and reviews about this ebook. year: 2009, genre: Romance novel / Detective and thriller. Description of the work, (preface) as well as reviews are available. Best literature library LitArk.com created for fans of good reading and offers a wide selection of genres:

Romance novel Science fiction Adventure Detective Science History Home and family Prose Art Politics Computer Non-fiction Religion Business Children Humor

Choose a favorite category and find really read worthwhile books. Enjoy immersion in the world of imagination, feel the emotions of the characters or learn something new for yourself, make an fascinating discovery.

Laurell Hamilton Divine Misdemeanors

Divine Misdemeanors: summary, description and annotation

We offer to read an annotation, description, summary or preface (depends on what the author of the book "Divine Misdemeanors" wrote himself). If you haven't found the necessary information about the book — write in the comments, we will try to find it.

You may know me best as Meredith Nic Essus, princess of faerie. Or perhaps as Merry Gentry, Los Angeles private eye. In the fey and mortal realms alike, my life is the stuff of royal intrigue and celebrity drama. Among my own, I have confronted horrendous enemies, endured my noble kins treachery and malevolence, and honored my duty to conceive a royal heir all for the right to claim the throne. But I turned my back on court and crown, choosing exile in the human world and in the arms of my beloved Frost and Darkness. While I may have rejected the monarchy, I cannot abandon my people. Someone is killing the fey, which has left the LAPD baffled and my guardsmen and me deeply disturbed. My kind are not easily captured or killed. At least not by mortals. I must get to the bottom of these horrendous murders, even if that means going up against Gilda, the Fairy Godmother, my rival for fey loyalties in Los Angeles. But even stranger things are happening. Mortals I once healed with magic are suddenly performing miracles, a shocking phenomenon wreaking havoc on human/faerie relations. Though I am innocent, dark suspicions of banned magical activities swirl around me. I thought Id left the blood and politics behind in my own turbulent realm. I had dreamed of an idyllic life in sunny L.A. with my beloved ones beside me. But it becomes time to wake up and realize that evil knows no borders, and that nobody lives forever even if theyre magical.

Laurell Hamilton: author's other books


Who wrote Divine Misdemeanors? Find out the surname, the name of the author of the book and a list of all author's works by series.

Divine Misdemeanors — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "Divine Misdemeanors" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

Reset

Interval:

Bookmark:

Make
MISDEMEANORS Meredith Gentry Series Book 8 Laurell K Hamilton To - photo 1

MISDEMEANORS

Meredith Gentry Series, Book 8

Laurell K. Hamilton

To JonathonI could not have invented you, because I did not know I needed you by my side until you were there. No amount of poetry can explain both the surprise of you, and the warm familiarity of you in my arms.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This one has to be for Carri, who saw O-dark-thirty with me on this book, and she still came in to work the next day. I also have to acknowledge all the bumps along the road to this book, because without all the bad, would I have come to all the good? But really, guys, can it be a little less bumpy next time, please?

Chapter One

The smell of eucalyptus always made me think of southern California, my home away from home; now it might forever be entwined with the scent of blood. I stood there with the strangely hot wind rustling through the high leaves. It blew my summer dress in a tangle around my legs, and spread my shoulder-length hair in a scarlet web across my face. I grabbed my hair in handfuls so I could see, though maybe not being able to see would have been better. The plastic gloves pulled at my hair. They were designed so I didnt contaminate evidence, not for comfort. We were surrounded by a nearly perfect circle of the tall, pale tree trunks. In the middle of that natural circle were the bodies.

The spicy smell of the Eucalyptus could almost hide the scent of blood. If it had been this many adult human-sized bodies the Eucalyptus wouldnt have had a chance, but they werent adult-sized. They were tiny by human standards, so tiny, the size of dolls; none of the corpses were even a foot tall, and some were less than five inches. They lay on the ground with their bright butterfly and moth wings frozen as if in mid-movement. Their dead hands were wrapped around wilted flowers like a cheerful game gone horribly wrong. They looked like so many broken Barbie dolls, except that Barbie dolls never lay so lifelike, or so perfectly poised. No matter how hard Id tried as a little girl, their limbs remained stiff and unyielding. The bodies on the ground were stiff with rigor mortis, but theyd been laid out carefully, so they had stiffened in strangely graceful, almost dancing poses.

Detective Lucy Tate came to stand beside me. She was wearing a pants suit complete with jacket and a white button-up shirt that strained a little across the front because Lucy, like me, had too much figure for most button-up shirts. But I wasnt a police detective so I didnt have to pretend I was a man to try to fit in. I worked at a private detective agency that used the fact that I was Princess Meredith, the only American-born fey royal, and back working for the Grey Detective Agency: Supernatural Problems; Magical Solutions. People loved paying money to see the princess, and have her hear their problems; Id begun to feel a little like a freak show until today. Today I would have loved to be back in the office listening to some mundane matter that didnt really need my special brand of help, but was just a human rich enough to pay for my time. Id have rather been doing a lot of things than standing here staring down at a dozen dead fey.

What do you think? she asked.

What I really thought was that I was glad the bodies were small so that the trees covered most of the smell, but that would be admitting weakness, and you didnt do that on the rare occasions you got to work with the police. You had to be professional and tough or they thought less of you, even the female cops, maybe especially them.

Theyre laid out like something from a childrens storybook down to the dancing poses and the flowers in their hands.

Lucy nodded. Its not just like, it is.

Is what? I asked, looking at her. Her dark brunette hair was cut shorter than mine, and held back by a thick band so that nothing obscured her vision, as I still fought with my own hair. She looked cool and professional.

She used one plastic-gloved hand to hold out a plastic-wrapped page. She held it out to me, though I knew not to touch it even with the gloves. I was a civilian, and I had been very aware of that as I walked through all the police on the way to the center of all this activity. The police were never that fond of the private detective, no matter what you see on television, and I wasnt even human. Of course, if Id been human they wouldnt have called me down to the murder scene in the first place. I was here because I was a trained detective and a faerie princess. One without the other wouldnt have gotten me under the police tape.

I stared at the page. The wind tried to snatch it from her hand, and she used both hands to hold it steady for me. It was an illustration from a childrens book. It was dancing faeries with flowers in their hands. I stared at it for a second more, then looked down at the bodies on the ground. I forced myself to study their dead forms, then looked at the illustration.

Theyre identical, I said.

I believe so, though well have to have some kind of flower expert tell us if the flowers match up bloom for bloom, but except for that our killer has duplicated the scene.

I stared from one to the other again, those laughing happy faces in the picture and the very still, very dead ones on the ground. Their skin had begun to change color already, turning that bluish-purple cast of the dead.

He, or she, had to dress them, I pointed out. No matter how many illustrations you see with these little blousy dresses and loincloth things, most demi-fey outside of faerie dont dress like this. Ive seen them in three-piece suits and formal evening wear.

Youre sure they didnt wear the clothes here? she asked.

I shook my head. They wouldnt have matched perfectly without planning it this way.

We were thinking he lured them down here with a promise of an acting part, a short film, she said.

I thought about it, then shrugged. Maybe, but theyd have come to the circle anyway.

Why?

The demi-fey, the small winged fey, have a particular fondness for natural circles.

Explain.

The stories only tell humans not to step into a ring of toadstools, or a ring of actual dancing fey, but it can be any natural circle. Flowers, stones, hills, or trees, like this circle. They come to dance in the circle.

So they came down here to dance and he brought the clothes? She frowned at me.

You think that it works better if he lured them down here to film them, I said.

Yes.

Either that or he watched them, I said, so he knew they came down here on certain nights to dance.

That would mean he or she was stalking them, Lucy said.

It would.

If I go after the film angle, I can find the costume rental and the advertisement for actors for his short film. She made little quote marks in the air for the word film.

If hes just a stalker and he made the costumes, then you have fewer leads to follow.

Dont say he. You dont know that the killer is a he.

Youre right, I dont. Are you assuming that the killer isnt human?

Should we be? she asked, her voice neutral.

I dont know. I cant imagine a human strong enough or fast enough to grab six demi-fey and slit their throats before the others could escape or attack him.

Are they as delicate as they look? she asked.

I almost smiled, and then didnt feel like finishing it. No, Detective, they arent. Theyre much stronger than they look, and incredibly fast.

So we arent looking for a human?

I didnt say that. I said that physically humans couldnt do this, but there is some magic that might help them do it.

Next page
Light

Font size:

Reset

Interval:

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «Divine Misdemeanors»

Look at similar books to Divine Misdemeanors. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.


Reviews about «Divine Misdemeanors»

Discussion, reviews of the book Divine Misdemeanors and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.