[rating=5]

The first book I read by this author was Feed. Don’t let the name fool you, Mira Grant‘s a pen name for Seanan McGuire. In other new, woo! the second in the Newsflesh series comes out tomorrow!

Getting back on track, this is pretty classic urban fantasy, with the oddness hidden away from mortal eyes with a mix of trickery, magic, and good old fashioned common sense. That’s not to say I don’t like the style where it’s out in the open, like the Hollows series, by Kim Harrison; it’s just keeping it hidden is the more common choice.

In addition, we’re not dealing with more than one ‘type’ of supernatural. No twisted blend of mages, vampires, werewolves, ghosts, demons and fairies. It’s just the fairies, and their part human children (Changelings). Of course, that ‘just’ is a trifle misleading. The author has done more than cursory research here,  with many different distinct types of Fae, all brought together into a nice salad bowl of a society; In the eyes of the full blooded fae, the changelings tend to be the unappetizing limp bits at the bottom. She’s stuck with the Celtic myths, which keeps a degree of consistency, and thankfully avoids the Tinkerbell stereotype. If you have the word of a fae, you’re probably good. On the other hand, Bottom’s fate might await you.

Getting to the plot of the book, again, the tried and tested PI route has been taken. I’m not complaining, as it gives the story a degree of internal consistency, as the character has a reason to have a clue about being an investigator. Sticking to my spoiler philosophy of if it’s on the back of the book, it’s not a spoiler’, it’s a murder mystery. A high up fae’s dead, and it’s up to the main character, October ‘Toby’ Daye, to get to the bottom of it. Or die trying. And to reconnect with the Changeling life she rejected. Which is good, as it gives a good reason for things to be explained, without needing large info dumps.

I’m a fan. I’ll admit this now. The only reason I’ve not read my way through the entire series (yet) is that they’re not available as eBooks (at least in the UK). So I had to wait for delivery. There are, so far, three other books in the series, with more on the way. I’ve read three, and the fourth is waiting. I may or may not review them, but so far? Damn good. Classic Urban fantasy, with a strong female lead. If you like the Dresden files, you’ll probably like these. So give the first book a chance 🙂