Ben is the new member of the Spokane Ecology Board, after
his predecessor was murdered. Of course, it isn’t generally known what the full
nature of the job entails – policing and investigating problems with the
supernatural community of Spokane. A community Ben never knew about before –
and certainly isn’t a part of.
It comes with a partner – Ari. A Bigfoot. She’s hoping this job will earn her some respect from the Bigfoot colony that has made her an outcast – she doesn’t have a great deal of experience with humans. Her predecessor has also been murdered
Both of them face something of a learning curve. But they
have to learn fast – whoever killed the people before them may be targeting them
next and, with the evidence heavily tampered with, the perpetrator may be one
of the few people they need to trust.
Given that, Thunderbirds having a temper tantrum in town
seems quite minor.
This is a neat murder mystery – it’s a story with lots of
interesting little twists and tangents that unfold as the book progresses at an
excellent pace. It has a few nifty red herrings that are thrown in with skill
and aplomb, we have some action that’s in keeping with the characters. It’s a
good plot and it has some points I really appreciated – like the action scenes
not being one-on-one fights (because why going into such equal battles?) and
the enemy not being so simplistic as is common place.
But the story is a far better vehicle for the world and
the characters
The characters are excellent – Ari and Ben bounce off
each other, flounder together, annoy each other, try not to annoy each other, fail
to understand each other but keep bouncing back and coming together again
trying to decide whether to sit down and figure out what happened or to Not
Talk About It. They have pasts and experiences and fully realised characters
that I just want to burrow through
If it weren’t for the world, the characters would be the best thing about this
book. But the world, with the different supernatural groups, hefty amounts of
Native American tradition, entirely newly created lore in places sprinkled with
politics, tensions and strong connections to themes of colonisation – is even
better.
There was a lot of Native American tradition and beliefs
in this book and even without the bibliography at the end you can tell that
there has been some research gone into them which is always great to see and
helped contribute to the richness of this world (along with the development of
the Bigfoots mentioned below). The combination and blending of well researched
actual tradition and beliefs with really well founded and well made fictional
worlds made for a very strong setting
