Jack Daniels Mystery #1: Whiskey Sour

Now I’m at a party and I hate everyone. There’s a band playing, but they’re almost done. I’m standing at the bar and I hate everyone. Won’t the band finish playing? Are they never done? A girl next to me spills out her whiskey sour. And I’m pretty sour, you made me wait too soon, half an hour. Let’s down Whiskey Sour, by J. A. Konrath.

Synopsis:

Lieutenant Jacqueline ‘Jack’ Daniels is having a bad week. Her live-in boyfriend has left her for his personal trainer, chronic insomnia has caused her to max out her credit cards with late-night home shopping purchases, and a frightening killer who calls himself ‘The Gingerbread Man’ is dumping mutilated bodies in her district. Between avoiding the FBI and its moronic profiling computer, joining a dating service, mixing it up with street thugs, and parrying the advances of an uncouth PI, Jack and her binge-eating partner, Herb, must catch the maniac before he kills again…and Jack is next on his murder list. Whiskey Sour is full of laugh-out-loud humor and edge-of-your-seat suspense, and it introduces a fun, fully drawn heroine in the grand tradition of Kinsey Millhone, Stephanie Plum, and Kay Scarpetta.

Source: Goodreads

SPOILERS BELOW

In this mystery / suspense thriller, we are introduced to Jack Daniels, a humorously-named police lieutenant who suffers from insomnia, and follow her as she hunts down a brutal serial killer called the Gingerbread Man. Along the way, she encounters a variety problems both personal and professional, including a breakup with her boyfriend, interference from incompetent FBI agents, and being forced to team back up with her scummy ex-partner.

The reason I picked this book up is because I greatly enjoyed the author’s short story “S A” in Wolfsbane and Mistletoe, and hoped that this series would deliver more absurdist humor in that vein (as the synopsis seems to promise with its declaration that the book is “full of laugh-out-loud humor”). And it does deliver on that… somewhat. It definitely had its fair share of funny moments, the best of which did succeed at making me laugh. However, the book is also trying to be an intense thriller with a violent killer playing a brutal cat-and-mouse game with the main character, and the two parts end up clashing a bit. When the narrative hard cuts from Jack and Herb having a humorous conversation to a POV scene of the serial killer reminiscing about all the hideous types of torture he inflicts on his victims… that there’s a bit of a jarring tonal clash.

Still, the book did succeed at making me like the characters, so I’m interested enough in reading more that I’ll probably give the sequel a shot as well. In that sense, I guess Whiskey Sour is a qualified success.

Final Rating: 3/5

Games Creatures Play

Don’t take the devil’s dare, don’t gamble when the game ain’t fair. Lock and bolt the doors, can’t let the devil use you anymore. Let’s spectate Games Creatures Play, edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner.

Synopsis:

Sports fans live and die by their teams’ successes and failures—though not literally. But these fourteen authors have written spirited—in more ways than one—new tales of killer competitions that would make even the most die-hard players ask to be benched.

In #1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris’s “The Blue Hereafter,” Manfred Bernardo learns about softball from a certain blond barmaid in Louisiana.

Life-and-death stakes make the competition get serious in New York Times bestseller William Kent Krueger’s “Hide and Seek.”

New York Times bestselling author Mercedes Lackey’s “False Knight on the Road” features a high-stakes drag race on a foggy mountain road between a clever young bootlegger and a mysterious stranger.

In New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman’s “Ice,” a young girl learns the true story behind a bit of neighborhood folklore.

New York Times bestseller Seanan McGuire presents “Jammed,” in which a chimera loose during the Roller Derby makes it anyone’s guess as to who will still be skating by the time the buzzer sounds.

In #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson’s “Dreamer,” a game of cops and robbers is a new challenge when the players are able to switch bodies at will.

And New York Times bestselling author Scott Sigler follows ghost stomper Hunter Hunterson as he investigates a haunted, never-ending baseball game in “The Case of the Haunted Safeway.”

These and eight more supernatural sporting stories are guaranteed to have you rooting for the home team…or else…

Source: Goodreads

SPOILERS BELOW

My look at the anthology collections of Charlaine Harris conclude for now with her latest volume, Games Creatures Play. As might be inferred from the title, the theme this time involves the supernatural getting mixed up in games.

Things open, as is by now traditional, with a Sookie Stackhouse story, “In the Blue Hereafter”. The main character is a psychic, who is directed by the ghost of his grandmother to attend a baseball game, where he meets Sookie, and the two of them discover someone using supernatural power to cheat. It was fine, I guess, though not as strong as some of the other Sookie stories that have opened previous collections.

“Hide and Seek” by William Kent Krueger is a typical ghost story, with a haunted house where a spirit spends every night forced to relive the final hide-and-seek game he played before his gruesome death. It doesn’t do anything new, nor is it particularly memorable in any way, so I have to call this one a miss..

“Stepping into the Dead Zone” by Jan Burke is a story about faerie changelings. I found it a bit mixed: the characters established themselves as pretty interesting early on, but there was a lot of convoluted exposition and the pacing dragged a bit. I’d call it so-so.

“Dead on the Bones” by Joe R. Lansdale was actually surprisingly good, given that I’ve found his previous contributions to these anthologies mixed at best. It’s an emotionally compelling story about a son having his father raised as a zombie to take revenge on his killer, with lots of good character details.

“The Devil Went Down to Boston” by Caitlin Kittredge has the protagonist driven by circumstance to make a wager with a demon. It was fine, though it doesn’t really distinguish itself from any of the many other stories in this mold I’ve read before.

“On the Playing Fields of Blood” by Brendan Dubois has some dumb teen hikers wander off the beaten path and get murdered by vengeful spirits in a bland and generic horror story plot. Nothing interesting here.

“The God’s Games” by Dana Cameron has a werewolf trying to prevent a murder at the Olympic games in ancient Greece. It was an interesting premise, but stumbled a bit in the execution; in particular, it struck that particular pet peeve of mine where the hero has no agency of his own and is just lead around by the nose by prophecy from oracles the whole time. As such, I can’t call it any better than average.

“The Case of the Haunted Safeway” by Scott Sigler has a family of monster hunters trying to bust ghosts at a Safeway. This is another one where I liked the premise but was iffy about the execution: while I was attracted to the idea of a humorous monster hunter story set in suburbia, the characters felt like one-dimensional caricatures without any real depth to them.

“Prise de Fer” by Ellen Kushner has the protagonist tutored in fencing by a ghost. This was one where I really liked the characters and the setting, but found the plot to be slow-paced and ending to be anticlimactic. Another mixed bag.

“Dreamer” by Brandon Sanderson has body-hopping possessors playing cops and robbers with other peoples’ bodies. Now, I usually love Sanderson’s work, but this one just didn’t do anything for me. There was nothing likeable about the characters, nor was there any of the deep worldbuilding with hard magic that he’s famous for. As a result, it’s utterly skippable.

“False Knight on the Road” by Mercedes Lackey has a bootlegger challenged to a race by the devil, except it turns out in the end to be not the devil but an elf. What a twist? The thing is, while this type of Devil-went-down-to-Georgia story has been done so much that you kind of need a twist to set yourself apart, that one this story goes with doesn’t work. It’s an anticlimax which undermines what came before by revealing that there were never actually any real stakes. The end result is worse than if it had just been played straight.

“Jammed” by Seanan McGuire is part of her InCryptid series, and has Antimony Price teaming up with some roller derby girls to fight a chimera. Now this was a good solid story, with entertaining characters and solid action. More like this, please.

“Hide and Shriek” by Adam-Troy Castro is a parody of Lovecraftian horror. It was amusing in places, but ultimately didn’t take itself seriously enough to be truly great; the ending, in particular, was just a step too far into silliness. The overall result was about average.

“Ice” by Laura Lippman has a girl fall through a frozen lake while ice skating and meet a ghost. It was decent, though the sports connection is tenuous – ice hokey, I’d call a sport, but just skating?

Finally, “Bell, Book, and Candlepin” by Toni L. P. Kelner has a witch trying to deal with the bowling alley she works at being put under a curse. Unfortunately, it ended up being a weak note to end the collection on; I knew I was in trouble the moment a major plot point ended up being a fart joke.

In summation, I count 2 good (“Dead on the Bones”, “Jammed”), 8 average (“In the Blue Hereafter”, “Stepping into the Dead Zone”, “The Devil Went Down to Boston”, “The God’s Games”, “The Case of the Haunted Safeway”, “Prise de Fer”, “Hide and Shriek”, “Ice”), and 5 bad (“Hide and Seek”, “On the Playing Fields of Blood”, “Dreamer”, “False Knight on the Road”, “Bell, Book, and Candlepin”). A bit tilted towards the negative, but there were enough decent stories to make it a worthwhile read.

Final Rating: 3/5

Inked

Got a tattoo said “together through a life” carved in your name with my pocket knife; and you wonder when you wake up, will it be alright? Let’s dip our pens into Inked, by Karen Chance, Eileen Wilks, Marjorie M. Liu, and Yasmine Galenorn.

Synopsis:

Four of today’s hottest urban fantasy writers together for the first time!

From today’s most provocative authors come four tales of urban fantasy and paranormal romance exploring body art that is more than it seems-in a world of magic and mayhem that always leaves its mark.

This captivating tattoo theme surrounds each author’s popular characters and worlds: Karen Chance’s war mage Lia de Croissets, Marjorie M. Liu’s demon-hunter Maxine Kiss, Yasmine Galenorn’s Otherworld Intelligence Agency operative Camille D’Artigo, and Eileen Wilk’s Lupi world

Source: Goodreads

SPOILERS BELOW

When reviewing an anthology, I usually list the name of the editor, not the names of all the many contributors. Why the exception in this case? Because there is no editor listed. Likewise, there is no introduction, no author bios, no explanations of the various series the works are part of… just four stories slapped together between two covers. In terms of composition, this is a far cry from the previous anthologies I’ve read from the likes of Charlaine Harris or George R. R. Martin.

Why’d I choose to seek out such a work in the first place? Well, the answer to that can be found in the collection’s first story: “Skin Deep” by Karen Chance. Since I happened to read and enjoy the first two Lia & Cyrus stories in other anthologies, I figured it might be worth checking out the third. Because this anthology contains fewer stories, they are each longer, and so we get the most complicated Lia & Cyrus story yet: there’s an investigation into black-market ward tattoos, and a serial killer is skinning werewolves alive, and Lia’s boyfriend has gone missing while on a dangerous undercover assignment. Of course, there plot threads all turn out to be related in the end; but having so many subplots going on at once means that the plot lacks the immediacy and momentum of a shorter, tighter tale like “Vegas Odds”. Compared to that story, this one is merely decent.

The second entry in the collection is “Armor of Roses” by Marjorie M. Liu, which is part of the Hunter’s Kiss series, which I’ve never heard of before and know nothing about. The story does attempt to address this, with early and frequent infodumps about the setting and characters; but it also seems to be a lore-heavy installment of the series, full of references to other subplots, which is perhaps not the best choice for a stand-alone inclusion in an unrelated anthology. …What’s that? This story was published in 2007, while the first novel of the series was published in 2008, meaning this was actually the first introduction to this world? Well, in that case, it’s just really awkward writing. In any case, the plot starts with a demon hunter investigating a murder, but then turns into a weird time travel story where some things apparently can be changed while some other things apparently work on closed time loop rules. I didn’t really get invested, so call this one a miss for me.

“Etched in Silver” by Yasmine Galenorn is part of the Otherworld series, aka Sisters of the Moon, which I’ve actually partway read and enjoyed surprisingly much for something that leans quite heavily towards the paranormal romance side of urban fantasy. This story is a prequel to the main series, showing the first meeting of Camille and Trillian. Overall, it was pretty decent, delivering the mix of sizzling sex and fantasy violence that is characteristic of the series. I can’t call it one of the best, though. For one thing, it’s a little bit too heavy on the dramatic irony – Camille swears that she’s never going to get married, wink wink, and Menolly sure loves sunbathing, nudge nudge. It also makes only the barest of token efforts at connecting to the magical tattoo theme of the collection.

Finally, “Human Nature” by Eileen Wilks is part of the World of the Lupi series. Our main character this time is an FBI agent who is married to a werewolf, and the two of them are called in to investigate when a werewolf is murdered with magic in an apparent hate crime. I’ll admit, the protagonists of this piece didn’t much interest me, and I felt that far too much time was spent on Agent Yu’s process of selecting what underwear to put on; but all the worldbuilding about the lupi integrating into society and the hate groups opposing them did eventually manage to get me invested. Plus, the actual murder investigation itself was solid, so I think this story can eke out a decent.

So, in total, that’s 3 average (“Skin Deep”, “Etched in Silver”, “Human Nature”), and 1 bad (“Armor of Roses”). Not the greatest batting average, to be sure, but I did somewhat enjoy more than I disliked, so this collection ultimately gets a passing grade, if only just barely.

Final Rating: 3/5

Bast Mystery #3: The Bowl of Night

O yearning heart! I did inherit thy withering portion with the fame, the searing glory which hath shone amid the jewels of my throne, halo of Hell! and with a pain not Hell shall make me fear again. Let’s overturn The Bowl of Night, by Rosemary Edgehill.

Synopsis:

Hallowfest, an outdoor pagan festival held in upstate New York, attracts all kinds of people. When a local resident is mysteriously murdered, Bast finds that her suspects include several modern-day witches, a ceremonial magician, a survivalist, a dominatrix, an ex-boyfriend, and even a few would-be Klingons. Can she discover which witch dunit–before the entire festival falls under a cloud of suspicion?

Source: Goodreads

SPOILERS BELOW

The Bowl of Night is the third and final installment of the Bast Mystery series. Bast, while attending a Pagan festival, once more stumbles across an occult-related murder; and once again the incompetence or lack of interest of the authorities and bystanders forces her to step up to solve the case herself.

The mystery was decent – unlike the other two books, where it was pretty obvious pretty early on who the villain was, this one made it a point to have a large number of plausible suspects. I was still able to call it, though, for meta-reasons: Julian, a recurring character from the previous books who Bast had crushed on from afar but had shown no reciprocal interest, now suddenly gets a relationship upgrade with her; and since I could see no in-story way that this made sense based on their previous interactions, I figured it was being done for narrative reasons – namely, to twist the knife when Julian ends up turning out to be the culprit. What do you know, I was right. Also, an ex-boyfriend of Bast’s shows up, meaning we get an unnecessary love triangle. Oh, love triangle subplot; I just wrote a defense of you in my review of Blood Trail, saying I don’t necessary always hate you, and this is how you repay me. The previous two books worked perfectly fine without the complication of personal romantic problems for Bast, and delving into that territory now only detracts from what was otherwise a good mystery.

The Bowl of Night was decent, but Book of Moons remains my favorite of the series.

Final Rating: 3/5

Bast Mystery #2: Book of Moons

From the hag and hungry goblin, that into rags would rend ye, all the spirits that stand by the Naked Man in The Book of Moons defend ye. Let’s read Book of Moons, by Rosemary Edgehill.

Synopsis:

Someone is stalking New York’s occult underground in search of the Book of Moons, an ancient spell book that may have once belonged to Mary, Queen of Scots, and is willing to kill to find it. Can Bast, a single white witch and amateur detective, find the murderer before he or she strikes again?

Source: Goodreads

SPOILERS BELOW

Dragon recommended Book of Moons as a fun read, and I was intrigued enough to pick it up and give it a try. The second adventure of Bast, a mild-mannered Wiccan finding herself caught up in semi-occult mysteries related to the neo-Pagan witchcraft community, this one starts off with a series of unusual thefts of Books of Shadows from fellow witches – easily replaceable items of no intrinsic value – which quickly escalates to murder. Only Bast, with her esoteric knowledge and connections to the community, has a chance at figuring out who the culprit is and what they’re after; and this despite being an otherwise normal person with no actual detective skills.

Like the previous installment in the series, this book is fun, witty, and has a lot of heart. The denouement was a bit long, continuing on well past the climax; but in this case, it feels like it was earned. Bast is not a noir detective, cynical and unsurprised at the depravity her investigations uncover; she is a normal person thrust into extreme circumstances by chance, and is understandably shaken by what she encounters. This is the second time that trying to do a good deed has unexpectedly thrust her into a life-threatening situation, and it makes sense to spend a bit of time ruminating on how her experiences have changed her.

Book of Moons is a well-written and highly enjoyable cozy mystery.

Final Rating: 4/5

Bast Mystery #1: Speak Daggers to Her

How do we find the words to say? How do we keep from running? How will we learn from our mistakes? How are these words like daggers? Let’s shout at Speak Daggers to Her, by Rosemary Edgehill.

Synopsis:

“Bast” (alias Karen Hightower) is a single white witch, entirely at home in the New Age Nineties. But when a close friend dies suddenly, possibly the victim of a magic spell, Bast must turn detective to find out who killed Mirian Seabrook–and how.

Source: Goodreads [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1055649.Speak_Daggers_to_Her]

SPOILERS BELOW

The next book I’m reviewing for my “Recommended by Dragon” series is Book of Moons, which was covered in “The Role of Books” in Dragon #266. But Book of Moons is Bast Mystery #2, which means I first need to read Bast Mystery #1. Hence: Speak Daggers to Her.

The story is, fundamentally, a murder mystery. Our narrator Karen Hightower, or Bast as she prefers to be known, is a witch (of the Wiccan religious kind, not the spell-slinging urban fantasy kind) who finds herself investigating the suspicious death of a coven member. She has no actual experience or talent that in any way makes her qualified to do so; but since no one else seems to care, it falls to her to do it anyways.

While this book is classified as fantasy, all of the supernatural elements are very understated and ambiguous; it is left to the reader to decide whether the villain’s black magic rituals had any actual affect, and whether Bast prevails due to the intercession of the Goddess or just good fortune. But even if it wasn’t heavy on spectacle, it was still an enjoyable read. Bast was very well-written: her narration full of casual wit and humor, relatable when talking about everyday matters but full of illuminating detail when speaking of Wicca.

That said, there is one teeny tiny little flaw with the book that I just can’t ignore. Yes, you guessed it: the victim is a lesbian. I just can’t get away from these Dead Lesbian Penalties. Sigh. Oh well; other than that, the book was good, and I still have decent expectations for the sequel.

Final Rating: 3/5

Strange Brew

Double, double toil and trouble; fire burn and caldron bubble. Cool it with a baboon’s blood, then the charm is firm and good. Let’s mix up Strange Brew, edited by P. N. Elrod.

Synopsis:

Today’s hottest urban fantasy authors come together in this delicious brew that crackles and boils over with tales of powerful witches and dark magic!

In Charlaine Harris’ “Bacon,” a beautiful vampire joins forces with a witch from an ancient line to find out who killed her beloved husband. In “Seeing Eye” by Patricia Briggs, a blind witch helps sexy werewolf Tom Franklin find his missing brother—and helps him in more ways than either of them ever suspected. And in Jim Butcher’s “Last Call,” wizard Harry Dresden takes on the darkest of dark powers—the ones who dare to mess with this favorite beer.

For anyone who’s ever wondered what lies beyond the limits of reality, who’s imagined the secret spaces where witches wield fearsome magic, come and drink deep. Let yourself fall under the spell of this bewitching collection of short stories!

Source: Goodreads

SPOILERS BELOW

So, I’ve recently read a number of urban fantasy anthologies edited by Charlaine Harris. However, P. N. Elrod was also credited as editor, so I thought it might be worthwhile to check out one of Elrod’s anthologies, thus bringing us to Strange Brew. The theme of this collection is… well, I’m actually not quite sure. Whereas Harris’s books always opened with an introduction laying out what the collection was about, this one doesn’t. It also places the author bios after the short stories rather than before them, which annoys me because Harris would occasionally use them to provide context about the series the stories took place in – something that could be useful for helping me understand what direction they were coming from. …Alright, now that I’ve gotten my complaints about the formatting out of my system, time to move on to the stories themselves.

“Seeing Eye” by Patricia Briggs is a story set in the Mercy Thompson universe which has a blind witch being hired by a werewolf to locate his missing brother. As a solid story with interesting characters and a decent plot, this made for a fine opener. If I rank it as average, it’s only in comparison to the unusually high standard of quality set by its successors.

“Last Call” by Jim Butcher has Harry Dresden foil a Maenad’s plot distribute poisoned beer for the glory of Dionysus. I’m a big fan of The Dresden Files, and this is a quality installment in the series which displays the usual winning mix of action and humor.

“Death Warmed Over” by Rachel Caine has a witch raising a deceased detective as a zombie to investigate a series of killings that has the police stumped. With compelling characters and interesting worldbuilding about past necromancy wars, this was another extremely good entry.

“Vegas Odds” by Karen Chance has the war mage protagonist attacked by an assassin who has brainwashed her students to use as weapons against her. Delivering intense, unrelenting action mixed with powerful character moments, this one is a definite winner.

“Hecate’s Golden Eye” by P. N. Elrod sees vampire private detective Jack Fleming hired to recover a reputedly cursed piece of jewelry which has been stolen. A good, fun story with an exciting climax where a number of characters simultaneously attempt double-crosses and chaos ensues, though for all the build-up the supposed curse gets, it never actually ends up paying off in any way.

“Bacon” by Charlaine Harris is a story set in the Sookie Stackhouse series which focuses on vampire Dahlia Lynley-Chivers getting revenge on a witch for the murder of a werewolf. A basically solid story, though not really an outstanding one.

“Signatures of the Dead” by Faith Hunter has a witch team up with a werecat to track down a den of rogue vampires which have been murdering people. It’s decently written, though I found the choice of protagonist a little odd – the story seems to be much more about Jane Yellowrock than the witch who is narrating, and indeed it is apparently a lead-in to a series called Jane Yellowrock and not Molly Trueblood.

“Ginger” by Caitlin Kittredge has a witch and her werewolf sister attempting to stop a coven of black magic users who are looking to take over the criminal underworld of the noir setting of Nocturne City. Again, a pretty good story; no real complaints.

“Dark Sins” by Jenna Maclaine is the final story in the collection, and also unfortunately the weakest. It follows a vampire witch who is abducted by a coven, then escapes and kills them all. However, she prevails not because of her own abilities or cleverness, but because a goddess steps in on her behalf and hands her victory while stating that everything that happened was preordained as part of the protagonist’s Destiny. In other words, another of those stories where our so-called hero has no actual agency and is just a puppet being jerked around on strings by the all-powerful beings working behind the scenes and there’s no suspense because everything is unfolding as foretold in prophecy long ago and why even bother? An unfortunate note to end on, given how strong the collection was up until this point.

Overall, I count 3 good (“Last Call”, “Death Warmed Over”, “Vegas Odds”), 6 average (“Seeing Eye”, “Hecate’s Golden Eye”, “Bacon”, “Signatures of the Dead”, “Ginger”), and 1 bad (“Dark Sins”) stories. That’s actually a pretty good score, especially considering that some of the ones I marked as average might have made it to good in a volume with less stiff competition. So, despite my annoyance over the collection’s lack of introduction, explanation of its theme, and pre-story explanations of what series they belong to, the actual content itself is notably high-quality.

Final Rating: 4/5