Category: Paranormal adventures,

Review:  Devils and Deadly Deals (Hunters Hollow Book 4) by Arden Steele 

Rating: 4.5🌈

Of the three series in Arden Steele’s connected universe, I find Hunter’s Hollow to be the most interesting. The characters have complex histories, and often dangerous pasts that follow them into their new lives here. 

Much like the original series, each has a fated mate, instant connection relationship story between the two main characters. What I appreciated here was that there wasn’t an instant love or in heat sort of connection. More an acknowledgment of its existence and let’s see what happens type of thing. A very different kind of story from previous books and it makes sense given the dramatic circumstances under which both Sammy and Dominic Rivas are operating. Each has their own individual investigations that need to be conducted, highly dangerous ones with short time frames.

The suspense and emotional moments are well written and the drama is ramped up to new levels as each character becomes more invested in each other’s lives and the outcome of their quests.

I think this is one of the best of the series. A excellent story and another recommendation. 

Cover Art by Poisoned Ink Studios

Another recommendation!

Check out the full list of same universe connected/crossover series and stories below.

Blackhaven Manor (14 book series):

  • Purrfect Harmony #1
  • Night and Fae #2
  • Dragon It Out #3
  • Grin and Bear It #4
  • Pixie Little Liar #5
  • Dead Over Heals #6
  • Silent Knight #7
  • Pain in the Ice #8
  • Walking a Tight Rope #9
  • Royally Flocked #10
  • What The Hex? #11
  • Dewitched #12
  • Draken the Rules #13
  • Bitten in Stone #14

Sequel/adjacent  series:

Hunter’s Hollow:

  • Angels and Anarchy #1
  • Beauty and Bad Blood #2
  • Curses and Casualties #3
  • Devils and Deadly Deals #4
  •  

Happily Ever Afterlife (3 book series):

Definitely Dead #1

Dead Ringer #2

Dead to Rights #3

Buy link

 Book 4 of 4: Hunters Hollow 

Blurb 

Everyone in Hunters Hollow has a story. Some are running from a past that won’t stay buried. Others are searching for a new beginning. For Sammy Leeds, the truth resides somewhere in between.

Opening a bakery in the bayou was supposed to be the first chapter of his happily ever after, and for a while, it worked. Until a single phone call reminds him that family is complicated and his freedom is only a temporary reprieve. 

Maybe trying to start a new life on the smoldering ashes of his old one hadn’t been the best idea. 

Dominic Rivas doesn’t make promises, and he damn sure doesn’t make mistakes. Yet the moment Sammy enters his life, he’s suddenly in danger of doing both. Alpha to a pack of hardened outcasts, he’s built a reputation on a foundation of bad ideas, but falling for a changeling with trusting eyes and a sweet smile might be his worst one yet. 

Callous. Remorseless. Savage. He knows what people say about him, and frankly, they aren’t wrong. While gentleness and mercy don’t come naturally, things like loyalty and integrity run as deep as his magical roots. Nobody messes with the people he loves and lives to talk about it.

Sammy needed a hero. Instead, he got a wolf with trust issues and violent tendencies. 

But with fear mounting and time running out, he’s just desperate enough to make a deal with the devil.

Peccavi Press

Publication date

May 16, 2026

Language

‎English

Print length

241 pages

Book 4 of 4

Hunters Hollow

Review: Dire Threat (The Austin Wolves #1) by C. P. Rider 

Rating: 4⭐️

Dire Threat, the first story in The Austin Wolves series by C. P. Rider, is set in the same universe as Rider’s Sundance series, which came out first. So much of the characters and events mentioned here are from major happenings and storylines that occurred during those stories. 

The threats that come to Texas are those carrying over from the Sundance series and the horrors of certain characters situations. Crossover characters, like the Alpha Juan Martinez, who was first introduced in the second Sundance novel, when he came visiting his friend the Alpha in Arizona. 

The real threats (government and otherwise) to the paranormal community, layered across shifter territories, and brought various members together. And continues to do so with the second series. 

Siren Emmaline Spirett is still traumatized by her past, her captivity and time under a deadly paranormal organization that has left permanent damage to her and her wolf shifter brother. 

This novella sets up a new location and continues the story for survivors of the past ordeal and deadly agency, and how the tragedy affects them and their relationships.

It’s a crossover story and series but it’s not entirely necessary to have read the Sundance series, although it helps.

I enjoyed Emmeline but find that Alpha Juan Martinez is too stalker for me to connect with. I far prefer the mage to the shifter, complicated to pound the chest if you were. 

The story has terrific elements and lots of narrative energy to keep the reader engaged with the characters and the plot. 

Recommended. 

Cover design by Danielle Fine, By Definition

The Austin Wolves Series (4 book series)

Dire Threat #1

Dire Warning #2

Dire Straits #3

Dire End #4 

Buy link

 Book 1 of 4: The Austin Wolves Series 

Blurb 

An Urban Fantasy Romance NOVELLA

Siren Emmaline Spirett thought she’d escaped her violent past when she rescued her wolf-shifter brother and fled a deadly paranormal organization. But when her past not only resurfaces but snatches her off the street and holds her against her will, she realizes it might not be so far behind her after all.

Wolf shifter Juan Martinez is the alpha leader of Texas’s largest and oldest pack. Intelligent, protective, and controlling, he’s faced down more than one murderous paranormal group. But, while he’s not the sort to go looking for trouble, he never backs down when it comes looking for him—or his people.

Emmaline’s brother Noah is one of his people. However, Emmaline is not. She has no intention of remaining in Austin and even less intention of joining his pack.
So why is he moving heaven and earth to find her?

If you enjoy urban fantasy with slow-burn romance, fast-paced action, and impertinent magicals, consider picking up a copy of DIRE THREAT, Book 1 of The Austin Wolves Series.

Please note: This is a long NOVELLA. Book 2 will be a full-length novel.

VC Group, LLC

Publication date

December 1, 2022

Language

‎English

Print length

136 pages

Book 1 of 4

The Austin Wolves Series

Review: Apollo (The Noah Project Book 1) by M. Tasia 

Rating: 4🌈

I’ve read M. Tasia before in her fantasy novels and enjoyed them, so I picked up Apollo not realizing it was part of a larger universe. Starting with Fire Lake series and continuing with The Noah Project, both are focused on the survivors of a hidden, government agency science project. One that used soldiers, and kidnapped civilians in horrific lab experiments to create paranormal mutations in the military’s secret weapon branch. It was called The Noah Project. 

Each series has what’s left of the survivors trying to discover to the others, rescue them and destroy the remnants of The Noah Project that continues to operate unchecked.

It’s a couple per book type of story and series. And  the length, here 200 pages, doesn’t really give the characters adequate space for a relationship of any depth to develop to at a realistic level. So it’s an instant/lust/love type of relationship. Which is acknowledged, a mystical connection.

It develops very quickly, the drama and the resolution. And the next couple is highlighted at the end. 

It’s entertaining and quick. But I wasn’t as connected to the characters here as I have been in similar situations and storylines. Not enough depth for the story.

Interconnected series, starting with:

Fire Lake (9 book series)

The Noah Project:

Apollo #1

Buy link

        Apollo (The Noah Project Book 1)

    

Blurb 

A Soul Forged in Shadow, A Heart Found in the Light

For years, Apollo was nothing more than a number. A perfect weapon crafted in the cold, sterile labs of the Noah Group. He knew only the grey of concrete walls and the sting of betrayal until the day he finally escaped his chains and claimed his freedom.

But even though he broke free from the group’s stranglehold, he couldn’t deny the isolation of being a “mutant” in a world that feared him. Now he’s a leader with a fearsome burden on his shoulders.

Then Rocko comes calling.

A weary detective who’d walked away from everything, Rocko wasn’t looking for a hero. And he certainly wasn’t looking for a man who could sense the hum of the world around him. But in Apollo’s guarded eyes, Rocko sees a soul worth protecting.

And in Rocko’s steady presence, Apollo finds the one thing the Noah Group could never manufacture: a reason to hope.

As they lead a band of survivors against the shadowy organization that still hunts them, the battle becomes personal. In the quiet moments between the gunfire and the narrow escapes, a bond forms that is more powerful than any genetic enhancement.

Apollo has spent his life fighting to survive. Now, with Rocko by his side, he’s finally learning what it means to live.

Boroughs Publishing Group

Publication date

March 18, 2026

Language

‎English

Print length

200 pages

Book 1 of 1

The Noah Project

Review:  Hat Trick (Wicked Witches of Cauldron Hollow Book 4) by Sara Bourgeois 

Rating: 4.75⭐️ 

Well, if that wasn’t just an excellent book.  The mystery was one where you knew who did it after a while. But the investigation takes Blythe and her familiar, along with Anya, on a path that leads towards many places and players. So the plot winds up being poignant, character driven and layered with smaller pieces of other mysteries . 

The author meaningfully scattered bits of information about the community throughout in new ways that knowledge of who did the murder early isn’t as key as you think. 

And there’s another stranger mystery brewing that will lead to the next book in the series. 

Sara Bourgeois is another autobuy/autoread for and this series is a great example why. 

Highly recommended. Love the author.

Wicked Witches of Cauldron Hollow (4 book series)

If the Hat Fits #1

Under The Hat #2

Hat Out of Spell #3

Hat Trick #4 

Bear Many Hats #5 – July 21,2026

Buy link

        Hat Trick (Wicked Witches of Cauldron Hollow Book 4)

    

Blurb 

Blythe Fairfield is finally getting the hang of her weird new life.

She owns a tea shop on Main Street. She’s dating the sheriff. Her late great-aunt’s notebooks are slowly teaching her what kind of witch she is, and her familiar has mostly stopped acting like tolerating her is a personal sacrifice.

Mostly.

Then the Cauldron Hollow Fall Festival rolls into town, and a dead body turns up behind the vendor trailers before the booths are even open.

The victim was a quiet leather worker traveling with the festival vendors. No enemies. No debts. No obvious connection to anyone in town.

At least, that’s the story everyone wants to tell.

As the festival barrels forward with tourists, bear sightings, and town gossip, Blythe starts tugging at threads nobody else seems to see. And somewhere between the funnel cake, fake smiles, and festival chaos, someone decides Blythe needs to stop asking questions.

Permanently.

It doesn’t help that Sheriff Paine is pulling away for reasons he refuses to explain. Or that Pippin keeps insisting being a Tallowmere should be enough to solve every problem, intimidate every enemy, and possibly improve Blythe’s posture.

But Cauldron Hollow has secrets it doesn’t show the tourists, and this one has been waiting twenty-four years to come due.

Blythe is about to learn there’s a big difference between a man running from his past and a man waiting for it to find him.

Sometimes the trick isn’t what’s in the hat.

It’s what’s been hidden in plain sight all along.

May 18, 2026

Language

‎English

Print length

218 pages

Book 4 of 5

Wicked Witches of Cauldron Hollow

Review: Over the River & Through the Wood (The House of Graves Series Book 2) by M.M. Crumley

Rating : 4.75 ⭐️

I really don’t know how I missed this author before, she’s astonishing. 

Over the River & Through the Wood makes Tessa Graves’ situation ever more precarious, the horror and ever present danger that the Patron threatens to her mental and physical state, and those around her is increasingly terrifying. And the hidden files of her father brings the truth of exactly how evil and vicious he and the Patron he as well as all the men of her family have become. 

It is a race to uncover who the Patron is, vs the mental pressure and physical force he’s bringing against her, the files she and Ollie and her grandmother are trying to fix and outside forces who have their own issues.

 

The deepest emotional struggle is that of Tessa, who, with help, has come to realize exactly what her father has done to her and her mind since she was 13. The missing memories, the chunks of her life, in fact, her life and consent, that was removed from her, until now. Grief, rage and loss is there  and the fact that she has no idea has to interact with others. And we are with her, in her head each second of every moment of every heinous act of her struggle to regain control of her mind and body . It’s gritty, raw, and utterly heartbreaking 

At the end I found I couldn’t stop, grateful that this was a finished series and kept going. The suspense, the intensity and, frankly, the building heartbreak, as Tessa lets a small circle of people into her life and heart even as the Patron is trying to dig in further for control, well, tissues are something to have around. Be warned.

Darkness is everything here, laughs a minor thing. The characters are brilliant. 

I absolutely love them. Binging is everything.

Connected Universe and crossover series:

The Immortal Doc Holliday Series (21 book series)

The House of Graves Series (6 book series)

Ghost Guy Series (2 book series)

The House of Graves Series (6 book series) :

Three Little Graves & the Big Bad Wolf # 1

Over the River & Through the Wood # 2

FIRE BURN & CAULDRON BUBBLE BOOK 3

A HUNTING, A HUNTING WE WILL GO BOOK 4

AND HE WALKED A CROOKED MILE BOOK 5

HOLIDAY SPECIAL: DECK THE HALLS BOOK 6

Buy link:

        Over the River & Through the Wood (The House of Graves Series Book 2)

    

Blurb 

Tessa Graves’s to-do list: Find her lost memories, kill the Patron, and restore honor to the House of Graves, if such a thing is even possible… 

The Cadwel incident did not go unnoticed, and as a result the Graves gals and Curtis Nash may be up a creek without a paddle. Old clientele are seeking to insure they don’t end up like the Cadwels by removing Graves, Graves, and Graves from the picture, permanently. And the only way to keep the Hidden government off their case is by solving one for the Tetrarch. (Never mind that it’s an unsolvable cold case from before Tessa could tie her own shoes.) If that wasn’t bad enough, Tessa is discovering that her mind is far less her own than she realized and that the most dangerous threat to her family may be her… Can the House of Graves survive as the power of the Patron takes hold? Dive into a hidden world of magic and mayhem to find out now! Available in print, eBook and audiobook formats, OR read FREE with Kindle Unlimited and listen FREE with your Audible Subscription!

The House of Graves is a new series with all the nail-biting-mystery, laugh-out-loud humor, and supernatural action that you’ve come to expect and demand from bestselling author M.M. Crumley. So if you’ve been looking for a fun ride, jump on, because this is the series for you!

Lone Ghost Publishing

Publication date

September 23, 2023

Language

‎English

Print length

326 pages

Book 2 of 6

The House of Graves Series

Review:  What the Spell?: Spellbooked Magical Cozy Mysteries No. 1 (Spellbooked Mysteries) by Elle Wren Burke

Rating: 4⭐️

Kinley Paigewright, orphan, product of the foster system, suddenly finds herself not only a jilted bride, but someone who has magical powers. Abilities that were unlocked when her ex dumped her on her wedding day and caused a magical explosion of emotions and power. And that caused a very nice paranormal policeman to come wisk her away to Sea Breeze Island, one of the hidden places where magical beings can live in safety and a place she and her family once called home . Not that she remembers. 

This was a terrific story. Kinley is a character a reader can empathize with, coming from a foster care system that had her moving multiple times, to the unknown factor that is her history and the mystery of her parents . And who locked her magic?

Those are questions that I expect will be asked throughout the series.

Kinley’s introduction to her magic, the island and the sentient store and all the inhabitants is entertaining to read about .

There’s a mystery. That’s good but it makes little sense for Kinley to investigate and withhold information about what she finds out from the very person, the officer who has gone out of his way to help her along with his familiar. Why doesn’t she just work with Ryland, he and that tiny dragon don’t have an issue with it when they do start communicating.  So not doing it to begin with just seems poorly thought out. Especially when you consider she’s new to the island and the magical community .

But it’s got just enough depth to the characters and world building to stand out from the crowd. And the story is interesting so I’ll be picking up the next book in the series 

Spellbooked Mysteries (3 book series)

What the Spell? #1

Spell to Pay #2

For The Spell of It #3 – March 15,2027

Buy link

 Book 1 of 3: Spellbooked Mysteries 

Blurb 

Unfairly dumped right before her wedding, can this heartbroken bookworm come to terms with her witchy heritage without getting locked up for murder?

Kinley Paigewright is reeling. But she tries to roll with the punches when a paranormal policeman claims the odd energy that just destroyed her bridal suite means she’s a witch and whisks her off to an enchanted island. And when the jilted bride learns she’s supposed to inherit a snarky sentient bookshop, things seem like they’re looking up…until her obnoxious new upstairs tenant joins the dearly departed.

Pretty sure she doesn’t want to stay at the top of the hunky magical cop’s suspect list, Kinley struggles to find proof of her innocence in a town overrun with puzzles and potions. But unraveling the truth means digging into her absent family’s past, mastering her explosive talents, and trusting an exuberant feline familiar to help rewrite her future.

Can Kinley crack the case before her second chance at happiness vanishes for good?

What the Spell? is the whimsical first book in the paranormal Spellbooked Magical Cozy Mysteries series. If you like immersive settings, charming cats, and twice-hexed mischief, then you’ll love Elle Wren Burke’s enchanting tale.

Buy What the Spell? to conjure up a fresh start today!

Soaring Moon Books LLC

Publication date

June 11, 2025

Language

‎English

Print length

282 pages

Book 1 of 3

Spellbooked Mysteries

Review: Three Little Graves & the Big Bad Wolf (The House of Graves Series Book 1) by M.M. Crumley

Rating : 4.5 ⭐️

I honestly dislike when Amazon or the author’s publisher goes overboard in its marketing efforts for a story, needlessly I think, to say things like “laugh-out-loud humor” or “among the best female fantasy books”.

Because first I enjoy making my own impressions, especially if the writer is new to me, as Crumley is here, or it is realistically not true. This isn’t the best female fantasy story ever but it’s absolutely terrific in a horror story, PNR, thriller manner. 

Crumley brings the reader into the story at the funeral for Tessa Graves’ father. Standing at the gravesite, she’s the last Graves now in the powerful, old family firm of Graves, Graves, and Graves. A man apparently mourned but none but herself. 

Turns out with excellent reason. 

Step by harrowing step, the author shatters Tessa’s well constructed, calm and orderly life. Her life and her household, when her “crazy aunt” and her “unstable butterfly” grandmother move back into the family mansion she’s inherited, along with the butler who’s been living there for centuries. 

But the horror arises when evil is discovered. Not one but two villains (one deeply in the shadows) and  the beginnings of the heinous acts they have committed.

There is a series prior to this one, The Immortal Doc Holliday Series , and those characters figure greatly here in this one. And there’s a carryover plot from this series into the Doc Holliday Series in book 17 I believe. 

The writing is detailed, emotionally charged and very terrifying/horrifying in the dark physical and mental trauma that the main character is enduring constantly. To say that I was hurting for her and those who cared for her is saying the very minimum. 

Incredible storytelling and series. Yes I’ve finished it. Binged it in a day. Highly recommended.

Connected Universe and crossover series:

The Immortal Doc Holliday Series (21 book series)

The House of Graves Series (6 book series)

Ghost Guy Series (2 book series)

The House of Graves Series (6 book series) :

Three Little Graves & the Big Bad Wolf # 1

OVER THE RIVER & THROUGH THE WOOD BOOK 2

FIRE BURN & CAULDRON BUBBLE BOOK 3

A HUNTING, A HUNTING WE WILL GO BOOK 4

AND HE WALKED A CROOKED MILE BOOK 5

HOLIDAY SPECIAL: DECK THE HALLS BOOK 6

Buy link:

 Book 1 of 6: The House of Graves Series 

Blurb 

Working as an investigator for the supernatural elite means living by three simple rules: don’t ruffle feathers, keep the clients (vampires, shifters, witches, etc.) happy, and never give them a reason to want you dead. Simple. Unfortunately, Tessa Graves just can’t seem to follow the rules. And that’s why 300 bloodthirsty wolf shifters are hot on her trail. Adding insult to injury, her newly-retired aunt and feisty grandmother have decided to become her new sidekicks… and roommates… and life coaches whether Tessa likes it or not. Can these three strong-willed women survive each other long enough to avoid being torn to shreds?

Review:  Hat Out of Spell (Wicked Witches of Cauldron Hollow Book 3) by Sara Bourgeois 

Rating: 4.5⭐️ 

Hat Out of Spell took the main character of Blythe Fairfield, her family history as well as the paranormal nature of the community of Cauldron Hollow to new levels. 

The author does this using the complicated murder of a recently returned and detestable man, using the investigation to examine darker, more intriguing areas of Blythe ‘s ancestry, that of the cemetery she’s renovating, and in-depth interviews into the community of witches and craftsmen who support them.

It’s small town dynamics but powered by a strong paranormal force, The Veil and old laws that Blythe has no understanding of. 

I just love this story, all the many complex plots threaded together, some resolved, but many more intense storylines that are just getting out there for Blythe to think about and accept. Like her Aunt Moira, and what her future might look like. 

Now to wait for the next book to be released. 

 What a fantastic series and group of characters. 

Just terrific. Great storytelling. 

Highly recommended. Love the author.

Wicked Witches of Cauldron Hollow (4 book series)

If the Hat Fits #1

Under The Hat #2

Hat Out of Spell #3

Hat Trick #4 – June 23,2026

Bear Many Hats #5 – July 21,2026

Buy link

        Hat Out of Spell (Wicked Witches of Cauldron Hollow Book 3)

    

Blurb 

Blythe Fairfield was just starting to feel at home.

She has a job at the local grocery store. A talking cat who insults her daily. A date with the sheriff that actually went well. And a cemetery full of dead relatives she’s been restoring one headstone at a time.

Then one of those headstones gets a new neighbor.

Griffin Midnight, a witch with more charm than sense, came back to Cauldron Hollow after breaking Blythe’s best friend’s heart. Now he’s dead in the Tallowmere family cemetery with a bottle of wine and two glasses, and the whole town is looking at the two women who had the most reason to want him gone.

One is Anya, Blythe’s best friend, who screamed at Griffin in public. Twice.

The other is Blythe, whose family graves someone turned into a crime scene.

Between a grandfatherly tea shop owner hiding a secret, a council member with a grudge against her house, and a killer whose magic is so subtle nobody knows it’s there, Blythe is running out of time and suspects. Pippin says the answer has been in front of her the whole time. Pippin says a lot of things.

But when Blythe opens her great-aunt Moira’s notebooks, she finds more than clues. She finds a secret that will change everything she thought she knew about her family, her best friend, and the familiar who’s been keeping his mouth shut since the day she arrived.

Some spells you cast. Some spells you inherit. And some hats are harder to take off than they are to put on.

April 27, 2026

Language

‎English

Print length

211 pages

Book 3 of 5

Wicked Witches of Cauldron Hollow

Review: The Corpse Whisperer (Corpse Whisperer Book 2) by H.R. Boldwood 

Rating: 4⭐️

Necromancy, yes, zombies normally no. So I’m surprised that I’m so invested with this series and growing cast of characters.

Allie Nighthawk is a young woman who was born into a family of maternal ghost whisperers, a gift that increases generationally. 

She recently returned to her home town of Cincinnati, reclaiming her family home, rescuing a bulldog, reacquainting herself with her elderly neighbor, and working paranormal cases for the CPD. 

The last book ended with the death of her police officer partner, a character everyone, including the reader, was fond of. It showed that Boltwood isn’t afraid to eliminate her characters if she feels that the story or overall series arc calls for it. 

In a universe where zombies are more powerful and evolving, and there’s a deeper heinous design behind their evolution, it makes sense that those around Allie will be in constant danger, and some will fall. 

Part of the terrific and, at the end, moving part of this book, focuses on Leo Abruzzi, a zombie-bitten gangster who Allie has been charged with keeping safe until he can testify.  The relationship between Leo, Allie and Nonna, Allie’s elderly neighbor, turns into a real heartwarming tale. Then one of sorrow. 

The aspect of the book I’m not quite connected with is Leo, her new partner, his spineless relationship with the news reporter who hounds Allie’s life, and the reporter herself. This dysfunctional three way dynamic is absolutely irritating to read, and when you think about a cop dating a reporter during a high security event and she’s got instant connection with him and knowledge. And not Allie or Leo is telling their Chief despite their knowledge about a leak. 

Well, know that’s where I start skimming over scenarios .

I’m hoping this works it way out in the future books. Because it’s annoying. 

The hidden past isn’t so hidden anymore from the book’s final paragraphs. Something to anticipate!

Still terrific story!

Cover art by Dar Albert at Wicked Smart Designs

The Corpse Whisperer series: 

The Prodigal 

The Corpse Whisperer 

Sworn 

Torn

Whisperer Rising 

Buy link

        The Corpse Whisperer (Corpse Whisperer, the Series Book 2)

    

Blurb 

If you raise deadheads, you’d better be able to put ‘em down.

Nobody said it was pretty. But in this day, when vampires aren’t just for breakfast anymore, and the dead are disposable pawns for necromancers, someone has to ante up. Looks like I won the lotto.

Imagine my delight.

You should thank me, really, because the world is batshit crazy.

When the zombie population spikes and no one knows why, it’s up to me to solve the mystery. But there’s a hitch. I’m stuck babysitting Leo Abruzzi, a zombie-bitten gangster who’s turning state’s evidence. But the mob and a powerful necromancer will stop at nothing to take us down.

The Corpse Whisperer is a 2019 Imadjinn award finalist and H.R. Boldwood is a Pushcart Prize nominee and winner of the Thomas More College Bilbo Award for creative writing.

Review:  The Prodigal (The Corpse Whisperer #1) by H.R. Boldwood

Rating: 4⭐️

Although listed as the first book in The Corpse Whisperer series, The Prodigal is considered by its author the prequel to the series. Its actual introduction to the corpse whisperer, Allie Nighthawk. 

These are my first books I’ve read by Boldwood so it’s my introduction into her writing as well as the universe of Allie Nighthawk. 

Allie is a ghost whisperer, someone who can raise the dead and equally important, put them back into the grave. In a world where zombies have been on the rise for the last few years, her talents are in demand. But the pay gap between the damage caused by the zombies and their destruction is seeing her bank account empty.

That’s got her heading back to Cincinnati, where she has a house and a past. 

There Allie’s got a rough landing into a situation where she’s in need of revenue, law enforcement is leery of her help, and the zombies are not behaving like normal. 

I really enjoyed this. It’s short but the characters, including Headbutt the Bulldog, are interesting and layered. And there’s a past darkness following Allie that seems to be a huge part of the series that is hinted at by the end of the book. 

It’s an entertaining read and sets the foundation for the series. A definite winner. 

Cover art by Dar Albert at Wicked Smart Designs

The Corpse Whisperer series: 

The Prodigal 

The Corpse Whisperer 

Corpse Whisperer Sworn 

Corpse Whisperer Torn

Buy link

 Book 1 of 5: Corpse Whisperer, the Series 

Blurb 

The Prodigal is a 2021 Imadjinn Award finalist, and H.R. Boldwood is a Pushcart Prize nominee and winner of the Thomas More College Bilbo Award for creative writing.

Murder. Mayhem. Zombies. Just another day in my hometown.

Welcome to my world—I’m Allie Nighthawk, a flat-broke zombie hunter with more attitude than cash. When I roll back into Cincinnati, I’m hoping for a fresh start. Instead, I land knee-deep in not one but two murders, a mess of mayhem, and more zombies than you can shake a machete at.

The good guys? They might not be so good. And the blast from my past? Yeah, he’s back—and not exactly bringing flowers.

Now I’ve got to juggle the walking dead, the maybe-not-so-living, and the very real chance I won’t get out unscathed. But hey, it’s all in a day’s work when you’re me: the Corpse Whisperer.

Oliver Heber Books

Publication date

March 18, 2025

Language

‎English

Print length

188 pages

Book 1 of 5

Corpse Whisperer, the Series