Installment immortality

Following on the heels of 2024's Aftermarket Afterlife, the deeply satisfying 14th installment of McGuire's InCryptid series finds ghostly babysitter Mary Dunlavey attempting to redefine her purpose, powers, and relationship to the family she's protected for so long. With the destruction of the mystical crossroads that both employed and controlled her, Mary is finally able to focus on her favorite job: watching over the Price-Healy family as they wage war against the monster-slaying Covenant of St. Georg. But now the anima mundi, the living spirit of the Earth itself, has an assignment for Mary: Covenant agents are capturing, torturing, and destroying ghosts, and Mary must stop them at all costs. She recruits Elsie and Arthur Harrington--extended members of the Price-Healy clan who are both grieving their mother's recent death and grappling with identity and family issues--to help. The trio head to Boston where the stakes ramp up as they try to protect the local ghosts before it's too late. Throughout, McGuire delves into themes of grief and trauma, both through her mortal protagonists and the assorted ghosts they encounter. This entry does an excellent job of further developing both Mary's story and the larger conflict between the Covenant and the Price-Healys. Series fans will not be disappointed. (Mar.)