3.5 to 4 stars: Exciting urban fantasy with an anti-heroine

Gin Blanco works under the pseudonym "The Spider" as a contract killer. Besides their knives you stand as so-called Elemental Magic also available. Gin can affect stones and ice, but these abilities must use only sparingly. She relies rather on good, old-fashioned manual labor.
Gin takes on a highly doped new job, only to find to their horror to have that she has been betrayed. A powerful Elemental who can manipulate air, has lured them into a trap and Fletcher, Gins mentor and surrogate father, brutally killed. Gin can narrow escape and swears bloody revenge. For this, however, it needs the support of Donovan Caine, one of the few honest cops in her hometown of Ashland. Caine could Gin be fatal and there are several ways: It feels enormously from the sincere man dressed, but wants to do everything in his power in order to withdraw from the market. Anger is thus inevitable and the opponent makes Elemental Gin also life difficult.

Total SPIDER'S BITE has liked me. Gin is an interesting main character, while quite callous acts over long distances, but still has a hidden soft core. It is characterized by its tragic past and has learned from hard experience to hide their gentler side of the world. They are logical, knows what she is doing, and can ward off their skin. Nevertheless Gin never acts like an invincible super woman but also credible weaknesses.
The secondary characters in SPIDER'S BITE could convince me. Particularly impressed I was by Finn, Fletchers son, combines a brother-sister relationship with gin. Caine has me also quite well-liked, although I would have liked to learn more about him. About Gins antagonists one learns not enough to get a real picture of their character, but they have all comprehensible motives and make some interesting challenges for our assassin is.
The storyline in SPIDER'S BITE is straightforward and logical and quite exciting. The mythology of the novel is well thought out and coherent. The Elementals can influence fire, ice, air and stone, there are vampires, dwarves, giants and of course ordinary people. The scene of the action - the city of Ashland - describes atmospheric and leaves you wanting more.
Jennifer Estep know clearly what it is doing, yet there was an aspect that bothered me at SPIDER'S BITE. Estep has the habit of issues to mention again and again in the course of action. Countless times describes where Gin hiding their knives, what is the fate of her family as she felt after Fletcher's death, and so on and so on. Find as her sisters mention is, without exception, explains who the elder and who is the younger, the eye colors of Finn and Caine are described repeatedly. The same phrases are also always used for these descriptions, which is tiring. I do not know if Jennifer Estep has this consciously used as a stylistic device or not, but I found these repetitions simply annoying and mainly unnecessary. I have understood the first time, what is to be communicated to me and I think it is the other readers do not go anywhere else.
Nevertheless gave me SPIDER'S BITE all liked in particular and I'll look at in any case the continuation WEB OF LIES. Thoroughly recommended.