THE twisted plot in the final book in international best-selling author Darren Shan's The City trilogy combines the mysterious past of the Incas, a phantom assassin and a trio of women who have a taste for human flesh.

Shan is best known for his children's books and in particular his Cirque du Freak series, made into a highly successful film this year.

City Of Snakes is from his first set of books for his adult fans and it has been a while since the first two of the trilogy were on the bookshelves. Procession Of The Dead and Hell's Horizon left fans wanting more when they were published in 1999 and 11 years later, the final volume has been released. He certainly knows how to keep his fans wanting more.

City Of The Snakes generates an amazing air of tension throughout, and mature readers of Shan's Demonata books will progress easily to this trilogy and become a convert to his gruesome grown-up grown-up storylines. All the way through you hold your breath, wanting to know what's going to happen to the two narrators and main characters Al Jeery and Capac Raimi. Disappearing people, others with no recollection of those who disappeared, and a mysterious green fog controlled by blind Incan priests all add up to an explosive ending.

Shan is the master of building a gathering air of mystery and City Of The Snakes keeps you on the edge of your seat chapter after chapter so that you can't put the book down. Fear not young Shan fans, Darren's new children's book Birth Of A Killer is out now. It follows on from his Saga of Darren Shan books and is the first part of the Larten Crepsley quadrilogy.