Super City Cops #1: Avenging Amethyst (DeCandido)

Super City Cops #1: Avenging Amethyst, Keith R. A. DeCandido (2016)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This was another bonus Kickerstarter Edition, but the book is from 2016. It's a short novel of roughly 100 pages, but it was a quick read.

The first thing I was curious about was if the "Avenging" in the title was an adjective or a verb, but it's a little of both, I think. (And an allusion to The Avengers, perhaps?)

It takes place in Super City, a city with a lot of costumed heroes and villains running around, and quite a few names get dropped. But it's the story of the regular cops who deal with them, so it deconstructs the hero mythos a little.

The story jumps around between a pair of cops, a pair of detectives, and a cop who's been sidelined because of an accident and works in the evidence room because he doesn't want to go out on disability and be an ex-cop just yet.

Amethyst (a guy, by the way, unlike the tween in the old DC Comics comic), a flying hero who's been around for 25 years, falls from the sky, landing dead on a roof. Was he killed, or did the fall kill him? And why does the guy look like he's under 30?

Detectives Kristin Milewski ("Mi-love-ski") and Jorge Alvarado investigate. Also of interest are two police officers who are newly paired Officer Paul Fiorello and Officer Trevor Baptiste who keep running into costumed people. Fiorello seems to have abilities that he isn't aware of. Finally, there's Sean O'Malley, the guy on disability, who has the dumb luck of attracting the Amethyst gem out of the evidence lock-up where it lodges into his chest. His disability is no longer an issue, but he's also the new Amethyst.

The detectives catch the villain, but his lawyer argues for his release. For one thing, Amethyst is obviously alive. (Now, there's a new Old Glory, so why couldn't there be a new hero. After all, there is a body in the morgue.)

Everything works out, except for Sean. The Amethyst crystal has its downsides, which he'll probably learn about later in the series. There are three books (that I know of), and I have all three from the same Kickstarter event.

It was a quick read and enjoyable. If I had one quibble, it was the jumping back and forth with the chapters. A chapter with O'Malley ends when something happens outside. We switch to the detectives going to meet a CI. The chapter ends in the middle of an attack by the villain with the next chapter back to Amethyst at the moment we left. When that gets resolved, we're back with the detectives at the exact moment we left. I'm guessing there were two long chapters that needed to be broken up in a way that created tension.

Also, there's a little too much with the deconstructing of the supers mythos. As presented, I'd find it hard to believe that such a world could sustain itself, unless it did a better job in the past and the times have just changed. But there have obviously been supers for at least 25 years, so you'd think some of the legal issues and ramifications would've been worked out already.

Not that any of that will stop me from reading the next book. Soon.

A Bushel of eSpec stories

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

I've particpated in a bunch of Kickstarters over the past few years. As a result, I wind up with not only a bunch of books to read, but bonus stories and gaming pdfs as nice little extras. These get sorted into folders on my hard drive. So I decided to knock off a few of them while I'm between books.

Since my last foray in reading short stories was a "peck" of eSpec, I'll call this one a "bushel", but don't expect four times as many stories, or even four times the length. It'll be until whenever I stop and post it. The batch should all be from eSpec Books bonuses and stretch goals, unless something else sneaks in.

In order that I read them:

Feeding the Mouth that Bites Us by L. Jagi Lamplighter was originally published in Dreams of Decadnece (date?). No spoiler, that mouth belongs to a vampire. The story is told from the perspective of Hannah, the lovestruck victim who despite giving up only a cup of blood every other week to her lover Ambrose, has lost all of her energy of the past year. While out walking by Central Park, she encounters a group of nuns handing out flyers. She reads it later to discover that they have a clinic that specializes in the very collection of symptons which Hannah suffers from and which no doctor has been able to diagnose. This leads her to the Order of St. George's Clinic, where she's finally able to breathe freely, and where she learns more about the nature of vampires. A fun read.

The Wedding Night: a Death and the Crone vignette by Megan Mackie. It's porn. Maybe the kind you'd find on HBO or Netflix, as opposed to other outlets, but that's what I found myself reading. It's literally the wedding night of the subtitular couple, and you're a witness to all the action. There's no plot, or as my editor might point out, no conflict. I assume these two characters, and perhaps this scene itself, were plucked from other works. I haven't read any Mackie that I recall (and this I would recall). Both characters are old and have been married before, but both have a youthfulness about them.

Seeing Red by Danielle Ackley-McPhail was originally published in In All Their Glory (2010). Samantha is a faerie who freezes when you sees the color red, particularly red caps. "Redcaps" are a type of malevolent, murderous goblin found in Border folklore, and they want to murder her. To overcome her hesitation, she organizes a game of capture the flag, using red banners, but soon she has to confront her fears head on.

The Fiber of Being by Jodie Lynn Nye was originally published in Heaven and Hell (2002). Jasper is dead, and Michael and Gabriel given him lessons on being an angel. Raphael shows up at one point, too. The Fiber of being is that piece of humanity that Jasper retains that angels do not have. It's what will allow people to rise higher than angels, who are as they were created. It takes Jasper a while to get the hang of it. (Nye cowrote The Death of Sleep with Anne McCaffrey, which I read quite a while ago.)

Alien Invasion of Earth by Keith R. A. DcCandido, Special eSpec Books Kickstarter Reward Edition (date?). Dr. Phillips P. Phillips, PhD meets with General Blunt at the Pentagon to discuss an unnatural object in space heading toward Earth. What follows is 7 pages of farce or satire, except those are usually funny. (Note: humor is subjective.) It isn't until the middle of the story that we learn that the story takes place during the Eisenhower Administration, which "explains" the use of the word "Negro" earlier. It also become alternate history very soon after this point. Phillips might seem progressive by having a black (Negro) and a female graduate student working for him, who he insists be brought along with him to assist him, but he berates them and treats them poorly to the point of being annoyed that they involved the gerneral about the UFO without telling him (even though they got him to sign the letter they sent). The general later mistakes the two of them (Lamont Johnson and Maria Chen) for an errand boy and a secretary, because, you know, it's the 50s. The one thing that is universal about the story is the higher-ups getting credit (and rewarded) for work of their underlings. I had an Assistant Principal who was quite smugly proud of himself at the bonus he got from his department doing more work.

On Rocky Ground by L. Jagi Lamplighter was originally published in Bad-Ass Faeries (2006). It starts This story is dedicated to the Freeman Children. It features the Prospero brothers, Erasmus and Mephisto, as they scale Monte Musine in the Italian Alps, along with Mab Boreas, who is an Aerie One. (I don't know what the Prospero brothers are, but they've lived a long time.) They are lugging ground giant bones and salamander poo as a payment to the Oreads, who are feminine rock-type creatures. They run into problems with a grumpy gnome. Hilarity ensues.

Reflections of Amontillado by Ty Drago was a special eSpec Kickstarter Rewards edition (????). It starts With respectful apologies to the master. The narrator is Antonio Santino Argestelli Fortunato, a merchant and a student of no art but business, who happens to love wine. He is married to the Lady Fortunato, who doesn't appear in the story. The tale takes place in northern Italy, where he is approached at a carnival by Monstresor, whom in the opening of the story was refer to as a friend and a foul murderer. Monstresor is the last of a family of wine makers as swamp has overtaken his lands and spoiled his vintage, forcing him to sell off land and let go of his servants. He lures Fortunato there with the promise of an Amontillado (which I had no idea what that was, other than a wine of no particular note). From there it plays out like Poe, in a tale I was first exposed to in a Bradbury story, similarly in a House of Ghosts comic (or another series of that ilk), and even in an episode of Dark Shadows. However, this tale doesn't end there.

A Brief Battle for the Throne by Jeffrey Lyman was originally published in Bad-Ass Faeries: In All Their Glory (2011). The story starts in London, 1850, when Lord Broggon of the Hobgoblin Tribe tries to go through the Door to Fairie but something is blocking it. The building the Door had been attached to has been demolished and the Door should just attach itself to the new structure. Unfortunately, the new building is the King's Cross station for the new iron rails being laid along the ley lines in England. They are blocked off from King Oberon. What to do? A Council meeting of hobgobins, elves, ogres, pixies and others try to come up with a solution. Instead, the tribes end up taking sides and a ninety-year war commences.

Undine the Boardwalk by Keith R.A. DeCandido was originally published in It's Elemental (2013). I don't get the pun of the title, if it's supposed to a play on "Under the Boardwalk". The story is set in Key West, mostly at Mayor Fred's Saloon, where a band named 1812 plays. The main character is named Cassie, who we find about about a quarter of the way through the story that she is a "Disir", a fate goddess, and sometimes referred to as a "Dis". She learned this from the king of the Norse gods, and previously had to stop Loki. So this is a series story. Only a couple of people know about Cassie's background. One is Bobbi, a member of 1812, and Rance, an FBI special agent. Jana, a friend of Bobbi's since childhood, and a friend of Cassie's since she moved there, doesn't know. Jana is also in the band. Jana has a new love in her life named Russ and everyone seems to love this guy, except Cassie, Bobbi and the old curmudgeonly Larry. Cassie doesn't know know why she doesn't like him, but she doesn't, and that's good enough for Bobbi. (There's also a crack about Russ having two middle initials -- so "pretentious".) By day, Cassie is a diver at Seaclipse.

Rance runs a background check and finds that Russ lives on a boat with his mother, so Rance, Cassie and Bobbi take a trip. The boat has "rusalka" etched on the prow. Looking that up, I found that a "rusalka" is a Slavic water elemental, usually malicious. Cassie can see its ugly true form through its glamour while the other two see an older woman who can still pull off a bikini look. Russ, however, looks human, so they figure that his father (who wasn't listed on his birth certificate) is also human. The mother, who goes by the hman name Anne, is horrified that her son is going to marry a human because it will only end in tragedy for both of them, and she speaks from experience. So they have to break up the couple, and get Jana out from under Russ's spell before it's too late. And then we find out more about Russ's parentage.

Tag Team Match with Hell by Patrick Thomas, C. J. Henderson, and John L. French. Kickstarter Rewards edition (????). It is listed as A DMA Casefile, which stands for Department of Mystic Affairs. The copyrights and trademarks list Murphy's Lore and "Bullfinche's Pub" gets a shout-out in the first paragraph. Bianca Jones is listed as a trademark of John L. French; she appeared in the story "Cold Iron", which I read recently. I don't recall reading any story including Lai Won, by C. J. Henderson. This is more of a CW crossover (not of "Crisis" propotions) than the Avengers getting together. Lai Won is a "psychometrist", which is mentioned often, but I wasn't exactly sure what that meant. (I was on the train, so I didn't have a dictionary available. It turns out that it's a real thing, someone who administers psychological tests. Yeah, that's not what she does.)

The story leaves NYC quickly (no Bullfinche) and heads down to Baltimore, which is Jones's home turf. Jones had worked with Agent Karver once before but not his partner Maddi Cobb, or Lai Wan. Wan has called in a marker because of something horrible that she experienced when she accidentally touched a DVD. From there is gets disturbing in subject matter as it involves a demon granting a bunch of people eternal youth 50 years ago, and they end up as children. They make money by making black-maret pornography. It's enough to make everyone sick, including the reader, which is, I guess, the point. On the cosmic reading balance scale, this tips the story so heavily that no amount of light-hearted banter is going to lift it back up again. (And the banter between Karver and Cobb seemed a bit forced, but it was also tossed out there for the benefit of the two other occupants in the car.)

I was only familiar with Bianca Jones before this story, and she had the least to do with it, even though it took place in Baltimore. Maybe that's why they decided to set it in Baltimore.

Vein Glory by Christopher L. Bennet, Kickstarter Reward edition (????). Not surprisingly, it's a vampire story. Vincent Shahan wakes up after a couple centuries in cryo-suspension, having been misplaced during the upheavals in the past. This is understandble. His doctor, Dr. Corazon Lee, is a vampire, and is most of the population. That's a little less understandable. Advancements have led vampires to suffer fewer ill effects and not require fresh human blood. The only cure for disease is vampirism and medical research has come to a halt. But there's more than meets the eye with Shahan

The Inner Light by John L. French, Kickstarter Reward edition (????). John L. French is the editor of an upcoming angels & devils anthology that I will be included in. This story takes place in Bethlehem on the night of the birth of Jesus from the perspective of the angel, Nika, who was sent to watch over Maryam during childbirth. Nika faces off against five of the Fallen. Any doubts are met with a voice reminding her to "TRUST YOUR INNER LIGHT."

A Peck of eSpec Stories

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

I've particpated in a bunch of Kickstarters over the past few years. As a result, I wind up with not only a bunch of books to read, but bonus stories and gaming pdfs as nice little extras. These get sorted into folders on my hard drive. So I decided to knock off a few of them while I'm between books.

How many is a "peck" of stories? However many it is that I decide will fit into this post. The batch should all be from eSpec Books bonuses and stretch goals. Update: I gave a "peck" is 12 in this particular instance, but these were mostly the shorter stories.

In order that I read them:

Cold Iron by John L. French was originally published in Here There Be Monsters (2006), which is a Bianca Jones collection. The story begins in Tir no nOg, home of Tuatha de Danann, and quickly moves to Baltimore, and Morgan's Rare Books and Collectibles. There's been a baby swap between our world and Faerie. Bianca Jones is a detective with the Baltimore Police Department, also known as the Watch. When magical means reach a dead end, Bianca puts the BPD resources to work. The differences in the flow of time don't help much.

The Case of the Cursed Weenie by John L. French was originally published in Hellfire Lounge 2 (date?), and is another Bianca Jones story. This tale begins with the statement: The story you are about to read is somewaht true, and could have only happened in Baltimore. A riff on the Dragnet opening? I assume the true part of the story is the fact that no matter whatever else goes down in Baltimore, if some puts lawn chairs in the street to hold a spot, you respect the lawn chairs. Gregory Tanner is new to town and isn't aware of the rule, and when he can't find parking amidst the massive amounts of snow, he takes a space that was reserved with lawn chairs. He gets a warning that the spot belongs to Miss Solomon, who practices witchcraft. Soon after there's a confrontation between the two, and when Tanner refuses to apologize, Solomon curses him. The titular curse refers to neither dachshund nor frankfurter. It's what you think. However, the story isn't played for laughs. Bianca Jones and her crew, which appears to be comprised of people from other stories, are on the case.

Endgame by Patrick Thomas is "a tale of Terrorbelle" and was originally published in Bad-Ass Faeries (2006). I've read Patrick Thomas before in other anthologies, plus his first Murphy's Lore book. I hadn't heard of Terrorbelle before. Thomas takes the "badass" theme to heart with a villain named Badass who has ... what it says on the tin. It's humorous in its own way, but not the humor I go looking for. Terrorbelle is another bad-ass faerie, but only in toughness. And both faeries are described as having hourglass figures with emphasis on where most of the sand is. This one takes place on the streets of Manhattan.

Henkin's Last Lies by James Chambers was originally published in Bad Cop, No Donut (date?). It opens with Detective Gary Henkin giving someone bad news about a case, and he has to lie to do it. Dennis Brancusi is a writer with a nose for racketeering and rooting out crooked cops, and who saw his parents and pregnant sister blown up in by a bomb that was intended for him. They both knew who was responsible for it, a man named Bruno with a nice hideaway overlooking Long Island Sound. My favorite of this batch so far, but also the first non-fantasy story in the bunch.

The Street of All Designs by Brenda Cooper was originally published in Cracking the Sky (date?). There's a brief introduction to the story that mentions "Fremont", which I assume is a reference to Cooper's other works, which I haven't read yet. The story is set on a strange planet called Silver's Home. Bryan and Alicia are walking around the city talking in the strange sites. They are brought by a woman named Induan to the Street of All Designs, which is a like a shopping mall for body mods like wings, extra arms, a camera in the back of your head. Bryan doesn't know what kind of mod he wants as he can't picture himself afterward. By the way, wings are a bad idea. The flyers never seem to be happy.

The Piece at the Fulcrum by Jeff Young was originally published in Realms and then Tales of Indiscretion Special Edition 2: Diversiforms (dates?). Dom Perival and the pregnant Jyn are playing chess. Jyn is a mistress of M'Lord Chanden and looks to Dom Perival for protecting, and bastard heirs tend not to live long, and she wants to keep the baby safe. Aside from teaching chess, Dom Perival tells her a parable before taking his leave. She's been secretive about the pregnancy until the time is right and she can plan to escape. Until that tell, she does her best to collect gold, even though it isn't enough. When Chanden discovers the situation, he isn't happy. I missed the foreshadowing of whatever catalyst set events in motion during the endgame. That said, I still enjoyed the story. (And I might reread the beginning later to find what I missed.) (Okay, I think I got it.)

Child of the Wood by Jeff Young, Special eSpec Books Kickstarter Rewards Edition (date?). Once there was an 8-year-old boy named Jeremy who wanted to be special, so he bizzarely decided to cut off his pinky with garden shears and bury it in the woods. When he woke up in the hospital, it was too late to reattach it, and he couldn't remember where he'd buried it anyway. He and his family move away. In the wood itself, there were only two houses, one owned by widowed Mrs. Hollerbush and other by the nosy Miss Rive (who owns telescopes to spy on people). One night, a dirty, naked boy wanders into Mrs. Hollerbush's home. And it's a bit of a fairy tale from there, but it gets a little Grimm.

Sunday in the Park with Spot by Keith R. A. DeCandido, Special eSpec Books Kickstarter Rewards Edition (date?). This is the tale of two humans, Bob and Sue, who live in a magical place called Riverdate, the Bronx, New York, and is told as a bedtime story between two beings that are neither human nor from the Bronx. Bob and Sue take care of a cat named Mittens, who is a Chaos Wrangler, and a dog named Spot, who is thick as a stump because dogs are even less smart than humans. Humans aren't capable of noticing that when a cat is scratching an itch and dancing around, it is really tracing a sigil, which is important for wrangling chaos. Mittens sometimes sneaks out to give instructions to other animals. However, Bob is taking Spot to the park, a grassland where dogs are free to run about, so Mittens trusts Spot with a mission, giving explicit details so he can't muck it up. Or can he? He is a dog after all. (Funny, I type "god" the first three attempts.) Cute tale. I liked it, and not just because my "Dog Listener" story has simple-minded dogs running around a park. I didn't think to add a cat to my story -- I probably could've gotten another thousand words out of that!

Towfish Blues by John A. Pitts, originally appeared in Talebones Magazine (2008). A dirigible in a lightning storm flying low over the water. What could go wrong? When they do, making EVA repairs can be tricky. A survey team, the low bidders on a contract, are gathering data on a new planet. The storm causes difficulties, and the captain and crew cause some more. The survey people need the money as they are low on funds. Marta, who suffers from migraines, leads the team consisting of Mitch, Robert, Susan and Steve. There's an intro by Brenda Cooper.

Trainer of Whales by Brenda Cooper, originally appeared in The Future We Wish We Had (date?). Kitha is an deep-sea kelp farmer for Downbelow Dome, which gets supplies delivered by blue whale. After an earthquake, the dome is in trouble become a large metal structure fell across three of the dome's six air scrubbers. Communication has been cut off. She's too far to swim back on the remaining air in her tank, so she swims to the break station with her shift-mate Jai. No one is getting in or out of the Dome, as it is reserving all resources. They travel to the dome using a motorized bed used for medical transport. Once there, they encounter a small pod of whales, which have been trained to make deliveries. The problem is that there is no one to remove their harnesses, so they are swimming about the Dome. Using a translation device, Kitha must bond with one of the whales to get them assist in freeing the scrubbers from the debris, before they swim away.
Fun little story.

Damned Inspiration by Hildy Siverman, originally published in Bad-Ass Faeries (2010). A member of the Tuatha De Danann, missing her wings, serves as a muse to a poet in New Orleans, Gabriel Lanier, who writes songs of the sidhe. Time passes (weeks or months), and the faery encounters Gabriel again at a coffee shop in the French Quarter. He chants the tale, but it's now gone terribly wrong, even though the audience enjoys it. Gabriel has been corrupted by a member of the Unseelie Court, who promises him fame but is sucking his life of its energy. He is fine with this arrangement. The narrator is not. (Okay, if there's a name in here, I missed it. Quickly skimming the text isn't helping me.)

Faerie Ring Blues by James Chambers, originally published in In All Their Glory (2011). Rollin' Joe Linnet works six steel strings like no mortal should be able to, and Gorge, exiled from the Faerie Kingdoms, knows it. And what sounds wonderful to mortals is grating to faerie who knows what those songs should sound like when played properly on proper enchanted instruments, by an enchanted person, in an enchanted world. He wants to know the source of Rollin' Joe's abilities. He made a pact with Nick, the Devil, or at least someone or something pretending to be. Gorge and his human companion and soulmate Delilah go off in search of it and find an faerie ring and an old acquaintance, Rade. A showdown ensues.

Tales from Dragon Precinct (DeCandido)

Tales from Dragon Precinct , Keith R. A. DeCandido (2013)

Not really a review, just reminding myself about some of the details of what I read ...

To date, I have read all the Dragon Precinct novels which have been published. I have not read all the stories. As I discovered in a sit-down at Heliosphere (NY) this past spring, Keith has submitted a number of Precinct stories to various anthologies that ask him for stories. Some of those are collected in this volume. Not all, obviously, because it was printed in 2013.

The better stories are the ones that remind me of Barney Miller episodes, even if I don't try to see specific analogues. The only downside was that the "first meeting" story, which concludes the book, was published in one of the actual Precinct books -- or at least in the edition that I purchased. (People who bought it "back in the day" might not have seen it.) The other amusing thing -- and this isn't a criticism, but a hazard of having submitting stories to many outlets -- is that I recognized when DeCandido reused a passage about calling the resident wizard to crime scene. A quibble.

None of these stories are "required reading" to enjoy the novels, but they fill in the gaps. The other books sometimes reference past cases, and some of those are in this book. The funny thing is that some of them were written after of a reference in a novel, not before them.

Fun book. Fills the long gap until either the Phoenix or Manticore books are written. And now I'll have to get More Tales.

Mermaid Precinct (DeCandido)

Mermaid Precinct , Keith R.A. DeCandido (2019)

Not a review. Just a reminder of what I read recently.

I was lucky enough to be at the book launch party for Mermaid Precinct at Heliosphere in Tarrytown, NY recently. I was even luckier to already have a copy of the ebook from winning a flash fiction contest at eSpec Books, the publisher. The plan was to buy the Tales of book to get signed since I can't sign my ebook.

(Sidebar: my winning story was The Feast of Groggry the Cronaut. )

This is the first one three books to be written for eSpec Books. To expand the series, DeCandido expanded the town. This book takes place a year after Gryphon. In that time, there was a fire in Barlin, and many refugees flooded Cliff's End. As a result, a new neighborhood was built, and while the official name is Albinton, everyone calls it "New Barlin". This neighborhood has been designated Phoenix Precinct. Also, there is now a prison barge offshore, which has been designated Manticore Precinct.

Guess what the next two books will be called. At a sit-down with Keith, I heard that Phoenix should be the next book to be written. It hasn't been started yet, so it'll be a while before I continue this series.

Gryphon Precinct (DeCandido)

Gryphon Precinct , Keith R.A. DeCandido (2013)

Not a review. Just a reminder of what I read recently. Read this a month or so ago.

Spoilers from previous books in the very first paragraph.

The end of Goblin Precinct was marked by the death of Dru's partner, Lieutenant Hawk, as well as the Lord Albin, who had been sick with more than allergies.

Albin's son, Lord Blayk comes in and immediately starts making changes. First, he gives both Captain Osric and Lt Iaian full pensions to retire. Then he makes Grovis the new Captain based purely on his status as the son of a Cliff's End banker. Blayk expects Grovis to be his mouthpiece and do whatever he's told. This doesn't play well with Torin, Danthres, Dru or even the new lieutenants.

Blayk splits up Torin and Danthres, so they can take each train new partners. He also doesn't want them investigating Albin's death. However, his mother overrules this and wants Danthres to investigate.

The entire castle is being upended, and Torin and Danthres figure out why. Grovis, in the meantime, realizes what a pickle he's been put in, to the point that he finds a retired Iaian, living alone now that he bought a nice house for his wife, to talk out his problem. Iaian has always hated Grovis, but can't argue one piece of logic: Grovis can't talk to anyone in the department about what's going on, but he needs to talk to someone who understands the department. That's Iaian, who tells him, basically, keep his head down and mouth shut if he wants to survive. That's how Iaian survived.

Verdict: an improvement over "Goblin".

Goblin Precinct (DeCandido)

Goblin Precinct , Keith R.A. DeCandido (2012)

Not a review. Just a plot summary, for future reference. Read this a couple months ago.

The third book in the series brings us to another precinct. The book opens with a former aristocrat in Elven society, one who had been close to the Elf Queen and who fled when the end was near, is now a poor beggar in Cliff's End, having never found a new way to support himself. In the end, he gives in and tries a new drug called "Bliss", which makes the user happy beyond belief. He's instantly hooked, but the high never lasts as long, and it's a short matter of time before he overdoses.

Not exactly murder. And not something that would merit the involvement of the Castle Guard detectives. However, when another Elven aristocrat shows up looking for the first one to try as a war criminal. Using his credentials, he forces the Castle Guard to find the body and prove cause of death, to make sure it wasn't a politically motivated murder. (Note: the reader already knows that it was not.)

The investigation uncovers the fact that the drug, Bliss, was created through magical means. Now the Brotherhood of Wizards will have a problem with this. In fact, the "Brotherhood" will have a bigger problem by the time the whole thing is over.

Among the other revelations, Danthres discovers that Sorlin, the city she sought refuge in as a half-breed, has disbanded because the purity laws elsewhere have been repealed. (In Unicorn, Torin ban Wyvald's father had shown up to bring him home to Myverin. We should be out of homelands now.)

No spoilers for anyone accidentally finding my blog, but there will be staffing changes by the end of the book.

Final take: Goblin suffers from lack of a murder, and from knowing the cause of death from the beginning without any real twist. There is one twist regarding the magical creation of the drug, and even that isn't resolved as well as it should have been.

Unicorn Precinct (DeCandido)

Unicorn Precinct , Keith R.A. DeCandido (2004)

Okay, so Unicorn Precinct is where the rich live, and it's usually a cushy assignment, so rookies on the Guard get sent there. Dragon Precinct is where the middle class dwell, and includes the area where Gan Brightblade's murder took place. Goblin Precinct is the slums, mostly the poor live there, and with smaller homes, some of the denizens there are nonhuman (dwarves and gnomes). Mermaid Precinct is the dock area. And in the Castle itself, where the detectives work, is Gryphon Precinct.

While there isn't a map, there is a description of the neighborhoods and street boundaries. Most of the streets have been mentioned at some point, so it's safe to assume that they're "major".

The main case, for Torin and Danthres, is the murder of the daughter of a nobleman as she is preparing for her wedding.

Dru and Hawk have the least to do in this story, and they are somewhat stymied by the negative reaction to the guard members in Mermaid Precinct to the investigation into corruption by Iaian and Grovis. Grovis is committed to rooting out law breakers. This becomes problematic when it reaches closer to home -- his home. Grovis's cousin, Cam Grovis was the betrothed of the dead girl, and he isn't telling everything he knows.

Iaian has his own secrets, too, and that's not sitting well with Avilar Grovis (who now has a first name).

I kind of guessed the who early on, but not the why and the how (or even the "what"), so it was still good reading.

The bonus story, which was nearly a third of the book, was the first case of Torin and Danthes, and how he came onto the force and they became partners. Some other familiar faces were around then as well, only ten years younger.

Fun book. I'll likely read something different before moving onto

Goblin Precinct

.

Dragon Precinct (DeCandido)

Dragon Precinct , Keith R.A. DeCandido (2004)

I've seen Keith R. A. DeCandido at science fiction conventions, particularly the possibly-defunct Lunacon and the newly-christened Heliosphere. He's had a long career and yet I don't think I've read any of his work before. Maybe a short story in an anthology? Thankfully, I'm remedying this!

I've never read any police procedural novels before that I remember. Mysteries, sure. Stories with cops, sure. But the written equivalent to Law & Order or C.S.I., no. (And for all I know, a different show might be a better analogy.)

This was a fun book to read, with one little caveat. The Prologue introduced a host of characters, one of which, Gan Brightblade, we know will be dead before Chapter 1 even begins. The prologue gave quite a bit of background and introduced a cast of characters of some renown: Gan, the great human fighter; Olthar, the elven wizard who betrayed the Elf Queen; Urbarlig, the dwarf fighter; Bogg, the barbarian; Mari and Nari, twin halfling thieves; and Genero, the human priest, who called them all together.

They arrive in Cliff's End ready to hire a boat to take them to see an old nemesis, whom many believe to be dead. Instead, Gan's neck is broken, unnaturally, in his room. Murder, but not by magical means. This is like the opening scene before the credits.

Where I had a little problem was with the first Chapter. We start in the police precinct with has parallels to a modern police station (as far as I know). Many of the characters for the series are introduced, along with a lot of dropping of place names and history. There wasn't a map to refer to, so I just went with it. Also, using the ebook (for me) is difficult to keep flipping back and forth, so it was a while before I got a handle on which first and last name went with each other.

Anyway (this is for me, this isn't part of a review), the main characters aren't those heroes, but the officers: Danthres Tresyllione is half-elf (hated by both races) and Torin ban Wyvald in human, and they are lieutenants on the Castle Guard. (They have Griffins, not Dragons, on their uniforms.) Two other lieutenants are Dru and Hawk, who are chasing down bad spells sold on the black market. Iaian is a veteran officer, two years from retirement, and he's paired with Grovis, a rookie who fails to be intimidating whenever he tries.

The biggest obstacle to writing a fantasy mystery, similar to science fiction mysteries, is determining what the rules are. In sci-fi, you need to know what tech is available. In fantasy, there's magic. Not a problem here.

There's a magical medical examiner, on loan from the Brotherhood of Wizards, who checks crime scenes for magic use. Oddly here, he doesn't detect any, which makes sneaks sneaking up on such a hero even more unbelievable. So if there is magic being used, it's been covered up expertly.

This was a fun read -- once I got past the first chapter, that is. And I'm glad that I picked up most of the series during a recent $.99 sale by eSpecbooks. (I usually visit their blog more than their homepage.

I'm looking forward to reading more, probably every other ebook I read for a while. (Print books are a separate matter.)