While Direct Descendant has all the hallmarks of a standard cozy mystery, where this book takes a very different approach is that everyone knows who causes the death that kicks the story off. After all, the victim appears to have killed himself right in front of one of the story's protagonists. The mystery here is not who did it, but why the heck he did it.
The small town of Lake Argen is in a rural part of Canada and it's fairly isolated. The town's primary source of income is a silver mine that has been producing far longer than it has any right to be, and while you might think that would draw some attention, it doesn't. That's because the citizens of Lake Argen have been working hard to make sure most people (including the government) forget it even exists. What no one outside of the town knows is that during its early years, the founders made a deal with a creature from The Darkness, and the result of that deal is a certain level of prosperity and a lack of influence from the rest of the world.
The Dark doesn't really ask for much in return. It gets the occasional sacrifice (but only the rare bit of livestock), and it gets to choose four individuals from Lake Argen to act as its agents in the town. Cassie Prewitt is one such agent, though she has only been the Mouth of the Dark for about eighteen months and she is still trying to get her head around her duties. Most of it isn't bad, really. Occasionally, The Dark wants to make its feelings known and it takes over her body to make a proclamation. Too bad the only one that can translate what it says is her cousin Eric, the Ears of the Dark. If he isn't around when Big D speaks, she better remember what was said so she can relate it to him.
Direct Descendant starts off on midsummer morning when Cassie is supposed to be watching a part of Lake Argen whose border between our world and The Darkness is particularly thin. While Cassie does get there before dawn, what she doesn't expect is a stranger from out of town standing at the site with a dagger in his hands. To make matters worse, he stabs himself with the dagger and gets sucked out of our world and into The Darkness. Sacrifices aren't really all that frequent in Lake Argen, and a self-sacrifice like what Cassie just witnessed is simply unheard of. Oddly enough though, whatever this stranger, Travis Brayden, intended with this unusual act, it doesn't appear to have any immediate effects and it isn't long before life in Lake Argen starts to go back to "normal."
A few months later and several hundred miles away in Toronto, Travis Brayden's grandmother is unhappy with the apparent disappearance of her grandson and hires Melanie Slovich to track down Travis' last known location and figure out what really happened to him. Supposedly he just wandered off into the woods and was never seen again, but she isn't convinced. While she hires Melanie to do the job for a huge sum of money, the problem, as far as Melanie sees it, is that she isn't any kind of PI. In fact, she is a high school English teacher who is currently between postings thanks to her views on the current political climate back in Ontario. Melanie's mother seems to have convinced Mrs. Brayden that Melanie is exactly the person for the job, though Melanie can't begin to fathom what was said to sell Mrs. Brayden on the idea.
So now, Melanie finds herself pulling into the strange small town, trying to explore the insular, though apparently very pleasant, community of Lake Argen in order to figure out the events around Travis' final days and discover if he really did just wander off into the woods.
Melanie's arrival into Lake Argen catches Cassie's eye and while she is immediately infatuated with the other woman, she knows she must also keep her distance. Unfortunately, since Cassie was the one who saw Travis' apparent death and is the one who reported seeing him go off into the woods to the police, she knows that her and Melanie's paths will cross sooner or later. So imagine her surprise when it seems the visiting teacher appears to have an interest in Cassie as well.
What follows is Melanie's fumbling attempts at an investigation while Cassie and the rest of the town try to keep her in the dark (lowercase "D") about what is really going on in the town. Meanwhile, her and Cassie's relationship starts to grow and Cassie herself starts to feel guilty about all of the secrets she is keeping from Melanie.
To make matters worse, it seems that something is off with The Dark (uppercase "D"). It seems that some of the perks the town has been enjoying are starting to lessen. For one, the government has contacted the mine about an inspection, and for another, where the town usually experiences perfect cell phone reception, now everyone is down to just three bars. When The Four get together to try and speak to The Dark about what they are seeing, they get the interdimensional equivalent of a busy signal and really start to get worried. Maybe Travis' self-sacrifice is doing something? He might have somehow survived the transition into The Darkness and who knows what kind of havoc he is causing on the other side.
Direct Descendant was just a fun experience from start to finish. Huff tells a story of deals with eldritch horrors, sacrifices, death and betrayal and then softens it all up with a veneer of cozy mystery that makes the overall book a much lighter story. I don't get the impression that Direct Descendant is the start of a series, but I wouldn't mind seeing a little more in this world. Huff did lay down a few hooks that could lead to more adventures in Lake Argen, but they aren't really necessary if this is a one-and-done adventure.
