Review: The Brimstone Deception by Lisa Shearin
Reviews / February 8, 2016

The Brimstone Deception is the third installment of Lisa Shearin’s paranormal urban fantasy series SPI Files. For a while I’ve been comparing these books to a jauntier version of the X-Files when it suddenly hit me–the relationship between the main characters reminds me more of Brennan and Booth from Bones, except in this series Makenna is the cheerful half of the partnership while Ian is the down-to-business one. Either way, I love the fact our heroine is a Seer, one of just a handful of people in the world able to see through the glamor of supernatural creatures, and in a city like New York AKA Supernatural Central, Mac’s unique talent comes in high demand, meaning she gets pulled in on all kinds of interesting missions. This time, SPI is investigating a new type of designer drug that has hit the streets, a serious but nonetheless seemingly non-supernatural crime, except for one major problem—called “brimstone”, the drug itself may have supernatural origins. Like its name implies, its key ingredient is discovered to be a substance only found in Hell, and its effects are equally disturbing. Humans who take a hit of brimstone essentially gain Seer abilities while they are under…