By Tim Lebbon

Titan, out now

Angela Gough discovers that the Kin are just as lethal on the other side of the Atlantic…

The second book in Tim Lebbon’s Relics trilogy frequently skews left when you expect it to go right, with characters making decisions that seem odd initially but make perfect sense in hindsight. We get inside the heads of a number of the Kin and humans introduced in the first book, and the move from the urban landscape of London to the North American countryside provides Lebbon with the chance to introduce different sorts of Kin – and different sorts of threats.

Now a lot of the initial exposition is out of the way, this book feels faster paced, with a few moments of out and out gory horror amidst the “urban” fantasy elements. There’s a particularly grisly massacre that you think (partly because of the way that the text falls over a page turn) is going to be left to your imagination, but then very clearly isn’t.

The middle book of a trilogy always has the problem of resolving some issues and setting others up for the finale, while also creating a satisfying read in its own right, and Lebbon juggles these requirements well. It certainly leaves a number of questions up in the air (including a few that aren’t stated outright in the text but which will occur to you after you finish with regard to some of the core characters’ own status) and I look forward to seeing how Lebbon brings this particular venture into the Kin’s world to a close.

Verdict: An engrossing and suspense-filled tale. 9/10

Paul Simpson