Rating: 4.75🌈
Swedish author, Ofelia Gränd’s latest novel reminds me that I really need to put her on my auto buy list.
Soul Eater’s wonderful universe drew me in completely and the storylines kept me invested in the characters and the potential for more tales to come.
She begins the story with a Paranormal Investigations Department that employs a number of different beings, from a psychic to a witch with detectives of various shifter species, including a jaguar Captain.
We get a glimpse into a squad out of sorts with each other and the cases several missing women to solve.
The individuals within the squad are divided into two groups, the magical humans and the shifters, as personalities and deep feelings have contributed to conflict between the members. Gränd’s believable well defined characters help the reader understand the differences that now exist between them as the case investigation gets underway.
I’m not sure exactly what it is about this author’s work that adds that extra dimension to it. That touch of subtle horror or oddity that overlies the most mundane of actions.
Not that there’s much of those here in a paranormal mystery murder thriller where shifters, sorcery, a ghost, and Halloween overlap .
Especially a wereghost. I found that aspect of the story so satisfying as it develops on multiple levels.
The author’s world building expands as the story goes along, our knowledge of the magical universe coming to include a division of human witchcraft into wizards, mages, sorcerers and warlocks, an distinction that’s been hidden from the human population and paranormal one alike. This has implications for a major part of the storyline and not one I would spoil. It’s just one more thing I found entertaining and added more to the characters.
It’s elements like this that will keep me returning to Gränd’s books and hopefully more in this universe.
I found the narrative fascinating, the elements marvelous, the characters well developed, and all of it thrilling and suspenseful.
A definite recommendation for this author and book! Love it!
Buy Link:
Blurb:
Detective Thaddeus Ezax is in over his head. He’s the only wizard in Rockshade’s Paranormal Investigations Department, and it was his name that got him the job. The Ezaxs are known as some of the most powerful wizards in the world, but Thaddeus isn’t your average Ezaxs. Is it any wonder his family shuns him?
When a kidnapping case is dropped into his lap, Thaddeus must act fast. While most five-year-olds can cast a location spell, Thaddeus can’t and is forced to get creative. When he finds himself in possession of a black market werewolf skull with a ghost trapped inside, accidentally releases the spirit, and somehow forms a connection with it, things get even crazier.
Sandulf Hunter doesn’t remember dying, but he remembers the last thing he saw before everything went black — a wizard. All wizards must die! The only problem is, the wizard standing next to him smells too damned good, so good Sandy thinks he might have to keep him.
And since wherever Thaddeus goes, Sandulf finds himself yanked along, he might not have a choice in the matter anyway.
• Publisher: JMS Books LLC (October 31, 2020)
• Publication date: October 31, 2020
• Print length: 186 pages
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 