2025 paranormal fantasy, fifth novel of its series. Bunny Barrington,
now a trained police officer in the supernatural town of Portlock,
looks into a mysterious death at the town's mine…
Alas, without the Big Questions about why Bunny is Not Like Other
Vampires, all the long-term tension has gone out of the series. There
are various action scenes, there's some investigation, there's a
cliffhanger for the next book, but none of it ever felt to me as
though it really tied to these characters rather than a generic
police force for a town full of strange supernatural beings. Hardly
anyone uses their distinctive supernatural powers to do anything that
couldn't be within the capabilities of a well-trained or strong normal
human. (Also there's this whole thing that witches count as a class of
supernatural beastie rather than human; I can see that you need a term
for people with no magical powers, when your range of supernaturals
also includes vampires and werewolves, but that doesn't sit quite
right for me.)
Bunny and her best friend switch instantly between serious
investigation and being teenage girls cackling about getting laid.
The one bright spot is Matilda the hag, who is being set up to be
blamed for the goings-on in the mine so obviously that everyone except
the dwarves who work in the mine spots it instantly. Sure enough,
that's what's going on; no surprises or sudden reversals here, and
even the inevitable traitor is exactly the person one would have
predicted.
This book is quite short, only about 72,000 words, but some oddity in
the formatting made it show up as 300+ pages on my Kobo (perhaps the
copy used for conversion has very large print) and, although the
writing is straightforward; I found this something of a slog to read;
I'd get through a scene or two, then drift away and do something more
interesting.
The fans apparently love it, and the people who weren't fans
presumably stopped after the previous book, as I should have. In fact,
while I hate to say this of anyone's work, the one of these I enjoyed
most was the first.
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