Rio Seco's a great place to change -- or it seemed to be to Keira Kelly. She's 37 and going through the Change. That seems early until you consider that the metamorphosis I am referring to is more like adolescence and coming into her own supernatural powers.

You see, Keira Kelly comes from a long line of near-immortals. Her own job in the family is what I'd call a "crosser" -- when her long-lived kin get tired, "Keira Kevorkian" (as she describes herself) helps them die through various means.

As the story opens, Keira's only duty is to see to her outcast full-human cousin, Marty Nelson, the undertaker in Rio Seco -- an imaginary town in Hill Country, Texas. The situation changes rapidly, as mutilated deer completely drained of blood are discovered and Keira begins to have nightmares that could be foretellings of both the future and an indication she's going to Change.

I thoroughly enjoyed the novel's concept, heroine and setting. This is an excellent effort for a first novel and is definitely worthy of a read to set yourself up for the next books in the series.

I did have a couple of issues with the plot: I'm not entirely sure whether Maria Lima wasn't fully sure of her world-building in Keira's past or she was merely trying to obscure it for future exposition; however, her concept of a family with mixed gifts that develop at maturity was initially somewhat confusing.

Also, what happened to the copy editors? There were several spots in the book where an editor should have caught simple errors.

Further, while I realize this is not a procedural, I believe police procedure was strongly violated by the sheriff, who allowed the family unfettered access to a corpse, murder scene, etc. Yes, investigations don't happen quite the same in rural Texas, but some of this really is fairly standard procedure even if the girl is your ex-lover.

Finally, Lima stirred a lot of ingredients into her fictional pot that were interesting and enriching, but she made a common first novel mistake of adding too much interest without fully developing what she's already set out.

Definitely hope to be hearing more from Lima. This first effort is very well-written and very much worth the time.