Review of Omens – Book 1 of The Cainsville Trilogy by Kelley Armstrong

Armstrong – best known for her trailblazing Women of the Otherworld series about werewolves – has started this new series. Would I enjoy it as much?

On the eve of her wedding Olivia Jones discovers two shocking facts. One – she was adopted. Two – her biological parents are notorious serial killers. With her life in immediate danger, Liv is thrown into a terrifying new world. But then she is confronted with a tantalising hope – is it possible her parents are innocent? Arriving at the remote town of Cainsville, Liv believes she has found the perfect place to hide while she hunts for the truth. But Cainsville is no ordinary town – and Liv’s arrival was no accident…

The plot device driving this series is intriguingly different. Olivia, a young, wealthy socialite who has it all suddenly discovers that she has a past that succeeds in negating all of her apparent status and wealth. Even her fiancé has second thoughts… I really enjoyed this one. Armstrong’s characterisation is always compelling and I have always found her world-building convincing and enjoyable. She puts those talents to excellent use in Omens. This paranormal thriller slowly builds up to the hinky, supernatural stuff, rather than plunge us straight into weirdness right from the outset – which is always effective, particularly in a storyline stretching over a series. It ups the stakes such that when events really start kicking off, there is a greater sense of shock at the abnormality after the ordinary everyday has been firmly established.

Olivia has hidden talents of her own, but rather than having an immediate and sudden reveal, she is fumbling to try and sort out what it all means. Once she is forced to confront the fact that it is happening, in the first place… Of course, no matter how appealing and enjoyable the feisty heroine is, she needs to be supported by a cast of interesting and believable characters. I particularly enjoyed learning more about the enigmatic lawyer, Gabriel Walsh, who is definitely one of the more mesmerising male leads in recent urban fantasy. His moral ambivalence lends a real edge to their investigations – and he acts as an effective foil to Olivia’s preppie fiancé, James Morgan.

And the haven where Olivia pitches up, broke and hungry, Cainsville is peopled with a variety of interesting, memorable characters – especially Rose Walsh, Gabriel’s aunt. Cainsville appears to be a dormitory town to Chicago – apart from the fact that very few people living there do the daily commute, due to the poor roads and long drive. There is definitely more to Cainsville than meets the eye – and don’t expect all those secrets to be revealed by the end of Omens. They aren’t.

I find it a fascinating parallel – Charlaine Harris has recently begun a new series set in a mysterious, small community called Midnight where a young man settles to set up his online clairvoyant business. Kelley Armstrong, also turning her back on an established, long-running series, has her protagonist pitching up in Cainsville, a town with its own slew of residents with secrets to hide… Fortunately, I haven’t had to wait to read Armstrong’s sequel, Visions, as it has recently been released. Which is just as well – after finishing Omens, I didn’t want to wait before diving back into Olivia’s compelling difficult search to find out what really happened to her parents. And her three-year-old self…
10/10