The King of Crows

 Bray, Libba. The King of Crows. Book 4 of the Diviners series. 560p. ISBN 9780316126090.

Following the death of Mabel during that explosion meant to destroy Jake Marlowe in Before the Devil Breaks You, the Diviners are pursued by the Shadow Men, ruthless agents of the US government. Marlowe has been feeding diviners to the Eye, his machine that opened a portal to the lands of the ghosts. He has made a bargain with the King of Crows to allow the U.S. army to set up an outpost on the other side of the portal, into the dead lands. Marlowe looks forward to unlimited energy to power the American economy. The King of Crows, however, has other ideas. His plan is to release an army of the dead through the gate opened by the Eye.

The Diviners need to split and make their separate ways out of New York City, hoping to escape the Shadow Men. Memphis, Bill, and Isaiah flee on a train heading to New Orleans. As African-Americans traveling through the segregated South of the 1920s, their lives are even more in danger than from the government agents chasing them. Isaiah, who has visions, meets teen Sarah Beth Olson in a dream. She's in Bountiful, Nebraska, and she tells Isaiah that the Diviners need to come to her home, for they can only triumph over the King of Crows if they unite their forces. How can Isaiah tell the others about this?

Theta and Henry free Sam from Marlowe's estate where he was about to be fed to the Eye, and they run away, chased by Theta's former husband and his Ku Klux Klan friends. Evie, Lin, and Jericho join a traveling band and successfully escape the city. As all travel west, they find themselves drawn to Bountiful and Sarah Beth. But everywhere they travel they encounter evidence that the ghosts are laying waste to small rural towns. As the King of Crows marshals his forces, the Diviners must learn to work together, or humanity is doomed.

This conclusion to the Diviners series is satisfying and neatly wraps up the disparate stories that have been weaved throughout. Fans of the series will not be disappointed with a bittersweet ending as Diviners come into their powers, but the cost is deadly and some of the friends do not survive.