kerryiscurrentlyreading's reviews
361 reviews

*** I received a free early copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review***

Oh how I wanted to give this book 5 stars. Its Silent Witness but Paranormal, A magic version of Torchwood. So many things to love. And I did really LIKE this book. A lot. But there were a few things that made this book a 3.5 and not a 5.

Our 'Nikki' (Silent Witness, IFKYK) - Jocasta Lewis is a shrewd and educated Forensic Pathologist who has ended up demoted and working with a bunch of weirdos. Her boss Domingo de Torres is a mysterious spanish man with an aversion for shaking hands with people. Together with an assorted cast of other slightly weird characters, Jocasta gets drawn into an Art theft investigation that makes no sense. And then, suddenly bodies start turning up. And if she thought her new job and colleagues were just a little bit strange, just wait until she gets some of these bodies on her table and under her knife.

We meet Jocasta in a bit of a confusing way, shes kind of in trouble we think but its not clear why, in fact, we dont really know much about her and that doesnt change at the end of the book. The author was in a rush to start the action and as such, many puzzling questions remain with me, like - Where does the money come from? Because Jocasta lives in what sounds like a largeish warehouse conversion close to Shad Thames. London has some of the most expensive real estate in the world, and her Dad was in the Navy and her Mom was a Coroner. Now I get this is fiction, but the point of Urban Fantasy or Paranormal is it is based in the modern world. So, this could be something that is explored later in the book, but its not even touched on. Which makes it quite confounding and hard to believe. 

Then there is her hard to believe lack of credulity when she first encounters the paranormal truth. She is a Forensic Pathologist and she just dives right in with barely a question? This again feels like the author rushing us to the important part where everyone knows and we are trying to save the world, but as a result of the rush, the whole way through, I am just not that invested in our main character. There is also the weird internal conversations she has with herself that dont start until Chapter 3, prior, we have a normal internal monologue/thought stream but after chapter 3 its always conversations between her and her subconscious.

And finally, the most GALLING thing, the thing that made me almost walk away from this book 3 times is the written accents. WRITTEN ACCENTS - the french man says Zhe and Zhey and the german man says Vat and Vhen but the spanish man? Apparently no written accent. Even though the author references his accent. Its horrendous and cringey and quite frankly insulting to the reader. If I dont know what a french accent sounds like, I could probably Google it, or just read the book and enjoy the character in whatever 'accent' my subconcious puts to the character.  This is jarring and completely takes me out of the story which I am sure is the opposite of the authors intention. I think that this is going to be polarising for readers, which is a shame because its such a good story and I am DYING to know what happens next. I won't find out though if the written accents continue

My first 5 star read of 2024! This book is incredible. I was absolutely hooked in the first chapter. Nikki's writing has the hallmarks of a very experienced storyteller (Which I found out she clearly is after I finished this and discovered her back catalogue).Kaisel as the MMC is believeable and loveable. I am not a lover of the whole "trope" designation of books but I will say, lovers of Slow Burn, Found Family will love this book. The characters are rich and 3 dimensional, the world is vivd and extremely well formed. There is a light touch of spice. If you have a mature/advanced teen reader or NA reader, this could be a good book for them (Caveat - this is the first book in a series, I cannot speak for how it will develop).Series fans will adore how Nikki has set this foundation book up for the rest of the series. There is some Romance for the "Romantasy" readers but this is definitely Fantasy forward. Fans of Robin Hobb, Trudi Canavan and Brent Weeks will love this book. As soon as I submit this, I am hitting buy now on the book and looking forward to being able to get my hands on the second.

I absolutely LOVED this book. Its multi POVs weave a wonderful immersive tale that had me hooked. The characters are well realised and the world is rich. I cannot wait for book 2 in this series. The reason I didn't give this book 5 stars wasnt to do with the book but with the synopsis. It describes Lorelei and Rylan fleeing as traitors. For me, the synopsis is a teaser, usually mostly describing the first part of the book, and so I went into the book expecting to see Lorelei and Rylan fleeing in the first few chapters of the book, but it doesnt actually happen until past the halfway mark, while this had absolutely no affect on the story and if fact worked well in the context of the story, it did mar my enjoyment of the book a little. I kept waiting for the book to really 'start' because I felt like Rylan and Lorelei fleeing was where the story was really going to kick off. On the whole, I loved the foundation that has been laid down for the rest of the series.

Fans of The Dresden Files, The Iron Druid,Mercy Thompson, Charley Davidson, do yourself a favour, give Nate Temple a go.

Terrible book

In Deaths will alway get 5 Stars from me. 50 something books into the series and J.D never disappoints.