★★★★☆ Rae's triumph

A Darkness at the Door

Intisar Khanani

** spoiler alert **

Intisar Khanani finished book 2 of her Dauntless Path series with a cliffhanger. Rae, investigating the snatchers and their slave trade, was betrayed by Prince Garrin. The book ended with Rae being locked into a hidden chamber in a slave slip with half a dozen children bound for slavery.

It's a kind of success! It's the tribute evil pays to competence. Rae now knows she's been on the right track all along, and was getting close enough to be dangerous to the slavers. And now she has the best possible opportunity to investigate how the slave trade works from the inside.

It was, in fact, a very dangerous step for Garrin to take, although he probably didn't see it so. He's placing a lot of trust in the slaver captain and his other subordinates. That friendless children cannot escape the slavers does not guarantee that someone who's proven herself as competent as Rae has can be safely put away. Besides, Garrin has reason to know that Rae has been befriended by one of the most powerful thief rings of Tarinon. What's more, she's been captured by two of them and escaped alive, if not quite intact.

So, of course, Rae does escape and bring the slavers to justice. (I marked this review a spoiler to allow myself to say that.)

I was a little disappointed by A Darkness at the Door compared to The Theft of Sunlight. Rae is just too capable. It feels as if there is no problem she can't solve. Furthermore, there's an element of deos ex machina.

It's a good story, but to my mind this is the weakest novel of the series. Of course, you're going to read it. The Theft of Sunlight is the best novel of the series, and then you'll need the resolution of that cliffhanger.

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