Sister to the Rain

Sister to the Rain, Melisa Michaels, ROC Books, 1998

Rosie Lavine and her partner, Shannon, are a pair of human private investigators. They are hired by an elf named Finandiel to discover the source of an unknown something troubling a mixed-race artist's colony in the California hills. It seems like a simple case: find out who, or what, is scaring the children, stealing bits and pieces from the other residents, and playing elven music before dawn.

Rosie, who has had dealings with elves in the past, moves into the colony, and starts nosing around. She finds a lot of possibilities, but nothing solid. The stakes are raised when one of the human residents is killed under strange cirumstances. Gary, the teenage son of one of the artists, is a thoroughly dislikable person who rides a loud dirt bike through the forest. Elves have more sensitive hearing than humans, so the constant noise could have driven one of the elves to murder.

The stakes are raised even higher when Shannon, in the colony to assist Rosie, is attacked in the forest late at night, and nearly joins Gary. Rosie also gets the idea that the disturbances may have something to do with internal elf politics back home.

This story is good, and quite readable, but, ultimately, I found it to be nothing special. I can give a rating of only pretty good.