Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5
Relationship and communication issues plague Officer Vikash Soren, but those are nothing compared to facing stick-throwing tumbleweeds, pill bugs and…time travel?
Vikash Soren, the perfect police officer except for his odd paranormal ability, never seems to lose his temper. Always serene and competent, he’s taken on the role of mediator in a squad room full of misfits. But on the inside, he’s a mess. Unable to tell his police partner that he loves him, Vikash struggles silently, terrified of losing Kyle as a lover, partner and friend.
But life in the 77th Precinct doesn’t leave much room for internal reflection. A confrontation with a stick-throwing tumbleweed in Fairmount Park leads to bizarre consequences involving pill bugs, statues and…time travel? If Vikash manages to survive the week and stay in one point in time, he might be able to address normal things like relationship problems. He just needs Kyle to have a little more patience. Maybe a few centuries’ worth.
Those wonderful oddball paranormal police officers of the 77th Precinct are back in their second crime novel, The Pill Bugs of Time (Offbeat Crimes #2) by Angel Martinez and I couldn’t be happier. I first met up with them in the wildly offbeat and downright scrumptious Lime Gelatin and Other Monsters (Offbeat Crimes, #1) and now get to step back into that paranormal police squad and the romance of Kyle and Vikash to see what’s happened to them all.
Normal was something one left at the door when assigned to a paranormal police station. Officer Vikash Soren had seen that demonstrated the first time he had set foot inside the 77th. During roll call, the man who would later become his partner had accidentally shot fire from his fingers at the ceiling. Someone else’s fire, as it turned out. In the weeks that followed, he had encountered an animated leather jacket, worked with a vampire, a lizard man and various officers of dubious paranormal talents, and had helped stop the killing spree of an alligator snapping turtle the size of a sedan.
It would follow that nothing should surprise him anymore.
But when he walked into the squad room that morning, late due to a doctor’s appointment, his colleagues had gathered around the periphery of the room to watch Greg Santos in a fistfight with a puddle of water.
That’s how Chapter One starts as Vikash wanders over to the desk of his police partner/off duty lover, Kyle, as they also watch the morning’s events unfold. All in all, pretty typical for them, hilarious for us…and oh thanks whoever for the marvel that is Angel Martinez’s twisty turny imagination. Because as great as the fight with the puddle of water? That even better, “really, guys?” solution to it all. Yep, I was home, smack dab right where I wanted to be. Where just when you think it can’t get any stranger, then weird up and rides in the door sailing past a tumble weed made of post it notes who just happens to be called Tim.
Of course, there is a largely personal element looming over all the nuttiness here. Vikash and Kyle’s new relationship is teetering on the edge of failure because of Vikash’s struggles with his own demons. His fears have cost him relationships and jobs before but never has he really cared. Now he does but Vik doesn’t know how to break his pattern. Its so familiar, this heartbreaking inability to break out of a pattern that’s become so infused, so self fulling that it may cost this man the love of his life. Martinez pulls us in so deeply into Vikash and Kyle’s confusion that we sometimes forget that Vik’s chasing after giant time traveling pill bugs with sentient leather jackets and vampires who find blood distasteful. Ok, no we don’t. But it makes everything else seem so perfectly part of their lives too. Normal is overrated here.
Can’t forget about Kyle as he’s never far from Vikash’s life, thoughts and struggles of the heart. Kyle’s pain is on the table too when Vik loses out to his fears and diminishes their relationship daily in small ways, all the while continuing their partnership as policer officers.
I think I love that so much. Layered, believable, characters like Vik and Kyle that fall in love, never have an easy time of it, and all while pursuing some of the most insanely creative and imaginative paranormal crime cases you will want to read about. And while one case may be solved, the relationship just gets eased into the next stage of growth and all our wonderful cast of investigators proceeds forward anew…with some wonderfully great new additions as well.
I love Offbeat Crimes and The Pill Bugs of Time is a grand new story in this series. Its all there. Humor, wild adventures and love…Angel Martinez style! I can’t recommend them highly enough. Grab this and the first story up today.
Cover art by Posh Gosh is the one branding the series. It works.
Sales Links:
Book Details:
ebook, Revamp Edition
Expected publication: September 20th 2016 by Pride Publishing (first published June 27th 2015)
ISBN139781786514721
Edition LanguageEnglish
SeriesOffbeat Crimes – add to your Goodreads shelf here:
Publisher’s Note: This book has previously been released elsewhere. It has been revised and re-edited for re-release with Pride Publishing.
Pre-order Date: 9th August 2016
Available exclusively to Pride Publishing: 23rd August 2016
General Release Date: 20th September 2016
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 