Line #57 Literature/ElementalAssassin


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ea_collage.jpg]]
2
3	''Elemental Assassin'' is an UrbanFantasy series by Jennifer Estep which focus on Gin Blanco, an [[ProfessionalKiller assassin]] codenamed the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Spider]] who can control the elements of Ice and Stone. When she’s not busy killing people and righting wrongs, Gin runs a barbecue restaurant called the Pork Pit in the fictional Southern metropolis of [[WretchedHive Ashland]]. The city is also home to giants, dwarves, [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]], and [[ElementalPowers elementals]] – Air, Fire, Ice, and Stone.
4
5	[[folder: Novels]]
6	The series consists of the following novels:
7	* ''Spider's Bite''
8	* ''Web of Lies''
9	* ''Venom''
10	* ''Tangled Threads''
11	* ''Spider's Revenge''
12	* ''By a Thread''
13	* ''Widow's Web''
14	* ''Deadly Sting''
15	* ''Heart of Venom''
16	* ''The Spider'' (Prequel Novel)
17	* ''Black Widow''
18	* ''Spider's Trap''
19	* ''Bitter Bite''
20	* ''Snared''
21	[[/folder]]
22
23	[[folder: Novellas]]It also has the following eBook novellas:
24	* ''Thread of Death''
25	* ''Parlor Tricks''
26	* ''Kiss of Venom''
27	[[/folder]]
28	----
29
30	!!Tropes found in the series include:
31
32	* AssassinOutclassin: As of book six, so many people have tried to kill Gin at her day job that the Pork Pit has a second refrigerator to stash the bodies in until Sophia has time to dispose of them after closing time.
33	* BerserkButton: Do ''not'' try to harm any of Gin's family, friends, or employees. Damaging one of Finn's cars is also a ''very'' bad idea, although in this case it's mostly PlayedForLaughs.
34	* BigBad: Mab Monroe, at least for the first five books.
35	* BlackAndGrayMorality: Because when our main character is an [[ProfessionalKiller assassin]] but ''not'' a VillainProtagonist, her antagonists ''have to'' be worse. The story taking place in a WretchedHive helps too.
36	* BotheringByTheBook: [[spoiler:Madeline]] attacks Gin by causing her and her friends a great deal of legal difficulties. Gin counters by finding that a large number of 19th Century dueling laws are still on the books in Ashland, and invokes some of them.
37	* LukeIAmYourFather: Detective Bria Coolidge was once Bria Snow, Gin's presumed dead younger sister. [[spoiler:It takes Gin two books to admit this to her once they finally meet.]]
38	* CityOfAdventure: Combined with WretchedHive.
39	* ContractOnTheHitman: In ''Spider's Bite'', Gin is hired to kill a target. Another assassin, the Viper, is hired to kill her immediately after she completes the contract so that the authorities have a convenient scapegoat to hang the murder on.
40	* CycleOfRevenge: Mab killed Gin's family, so Gin killed Mab. Then M. M. Monroe [[spoiler:(Mab's daughter Madeline)]] comes to town seeking revenge. [[spoiler:She fails, leaving behind a child of her own. Despite knowing that this could allow the cycle to continue, Gin refuses to kill [[WouldNotHurtAChild a four-year-old girl]] for the [[SinsOfTheFather crimes of her mother and grandmother]], instead arranging for Moira Monroe to be returned to the custody of her father, who appears to be a decent person. When asked if that was the right decision to make, Gin replies that they'll find out in twenty years or so]].
41	* DatingCatwoman: Detective Donovan Caine and Gin Blanco, the assassin who killed his partner. While he eventually gets over the "killed his partner" thing (he was a ''very'' DirtyCop, even by the standards of Ashland), he ultimately decides that he can't be with her and still be the man he pictures himself to be, so he leaves town to remove himself from temptation. [[spoiler:The next time he appears, they've both found somebody else.]]
42	%%* DeadpanSnarker: Gin, to the core.
43	* DieHardOnAnX: ''Deadly Sting'' is Die Hard At The Local Museum.
44	* DirtyCop: [[WretchedHive Ashland]] being the corrupted city it is, most cops here are this. The only notable exceptions are Donovan, Bria, and Xavier. And since all three of them are fully aware of who the assassin/vigilante/[[spoiler:mob boss]] known as The Spider really is and don't do a thing about it, they're not entirely clean either.
45	* DressesTheSame: Gin goes to a party at the local museum in a dress her foster brother got for her, only to find that her ex is there on the arm of a girl wearing the same dress. Oddly, it's the ''men'' in the story who get worked up over it, as it means that the store had sold two of an allegedly one of a kind designer dress. This inadvertently saves Gin's life - when thieves raid the museum, they make a point of assassinating Gin first so she can't go Die Hard on them, only they accidentally kill the other girl, who bore a superficial resemblance to Gin and was wearing an identical dress.
46	* ElementalPowers: A good part of the cast has one. The four primary powers are Air, Fire, Ice and Stone, and known offshores include Acid, Electricity, Metal and Water.
47	** Gin is a powerful dual elemental (which is very rare) -- Ice/Stone.
48	** Mab Monroe is a very powerful Fire elemental.
49	** Jo-Jo and Sophia Deveraux are Air elementals.
50	** Owen Grayson is a Metal elemental.
51	** Bria Coolidge/Snow is an Ice elemental.
52	%%* FantasticNoir
53	* FatSweatySouthernerInAWhiteSuit: Captain Wayne Stephenson is a DirtyCop who is constantly dabbing away sweat with a handkerchief. In ''Spider's Bite'', he shows up at a formal fundraiser wearing a white suit.
54	* GloveSlap: Gin does this to challenge [[spoiler:Madeline Monroe]] to an elemental duel -- and then points out that since [[BotheringByTheBook Ashland never repealed the dueling laws]] that had been passed before the Civil War, not only does not accepting mean demonstrating cowardice in front of all present (Every single crime boss in Ashland), it also constitutes legally forfeiting one's ''entire estate'' to the challenger.
55	* {{Goth}}: Sophia Deveraux.
56	* HeadTiltinglyKinky: In ''Spider's Bite'', Gin finds some photographs of Giles Gordon engaged in sex with prostitutes:
57	-->"Giles had been a little more serious about his prostitute predilection than Fletcher's file had let on. I turned one of the photos sideways. More flexible, too."
58	* HighDiveEscape: In ''Spider's Bite'', Gin is attempting to escape from the Ashland Opera House when she is cornered by Donovan Caine on the roof. She escapes by jumping off the roof into the Aneirin River.
59	* KlingonPromotion: After Gin kills Mab, everyone thinks that killing The Spider is necessary to take Mab's place as ruler of Ashland's underworld. [[spoiler:After beating Mab's daughter Madeline, Gin publicly declares that she doesn't care ''who'' rules among Ashland's crime bosses so long as they leave her and hers alone. They make her defacto queen anyway.]]
60	%%* ManipulativeBitch: [[spoiler: Madeline Magda Monroe, Mab's daughter]]
61	%%* MentorOccupationalHazard: Gin's mentor Fletcher is murdered a third of the way through the first book.
62	%%* MotorMouth: Finnegan Lane
63	* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: The Spider, Gin's codename as an [[ProfessionalKiller assassin]].
64	* NotBloodSiblings: Bria ends up in a relationship with Finn, who is the foster brother of her biological sister Gin.
65	* OneLastJob: Gin has been ''trying'' to retire from the assassin business since ''Web of Lies'', but people keep attacking her or stomping on her BerserkButton, which makes her obliged to come out of retirement long enough to teach the offending party a lesson.
66	* OrderliesAreCreeps: In ''Spider's Bite'', Gin kills an orderly at a mental hospital who has been raping patients.
67	* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Even ''Gin'' doesn't think of herself as Genevieve anymore.
68	* OpenSecret: Gin's secret identity isn't much of a secret by the end of the first arc. The first book of the second arc centers around her taking an out-of-town vacation to get away from the street punks harassing her at her day job in the hopes of being the one to kill The Spider so she can have some peace and quiet.
69	* OurVampiresAreDifferent: Vampires are a natural species instead of undead, have active metabolisms, can walk fine under the sun and have no particular issues with garlic or silver. They do need to consume blood alongside mundane food; they can live on animal blood, but prefer the human kind -- there are blood banks dedicated to paying people to donate their blood for vampires to feed on. Feeding on human blood also gives vampire enhanced senses, strength and reflexes; dwarf or giant blood gives them SuperStrength, while that of elementals gives them ElementalPowers -- until the blood cycles out of their systems.
70	* PoliceAreUseless: Due to the corruption levels, asking for help from any cop other than Donovan, Bria or Xavier is wasting your time.
71	* ProfessionalKiller: Gin, aka The Spider, who as of book two is ''supposed'' to be retired. Her mentor Fletcher, aka the Tin Man, was one too.
72	* RedBaron: When working, Gin goes by the alias of 'The Spider'. Her mentor Fletcher went by the alias of 'Tin Man'.
73	* ScarsAreForever: Especially when molten metal is poured into the wounds before they have a chance to heal.
74	* SelfFulfillingProphecy: Mab's efforts to eliminate the Snow family before one of their children could rise to become an elemental strong enough to challenge her is what caused a young Genevieve Snow to become the assassin Gin Blanco. The fact that Mab had designated the wrong daughter as her primary target didn't help.
75	* SinsOfTheFather: Gin deliberately averts in when she decides not to kill [[spoiler:Mab's granddaughter]].
76	%%* StandardFantasyRaces: Humans, dwarves, giants and vampires.
77	* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Or rather, Trademark Favorite Drink -- gin for Gin and chicory coffee for Finn.
78	* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: M.M. Monroe who is Mab Monroe in all but name. She's also a GenerationXerox being [[spoiler: Mab's daughter.]]
79	* UrbanFantasy: Vampires, Elementals, Dwarves, and Giants. Oh My.
80	* WouldHurtAChild: Most notably Mab Monroe, who did not hesitated to order ''the entire Snow family'' murdered, with a special emphasis on ''the daughters''.
81	* WouldNotHurtAChild: Gin, who learned it from Fletcher. Fletcher actually refused the job to wipe out the Snows because their children were explicitly included among the targets.
82	%%* WretchedHive: Ashland is one of these.
83	* YouKilledMyFather: Gin to Mab. And [[spoiler:Madeline]] to Gin in return.

Context Literature / ElementalAssassin