Jack Shepherd,
soldier, weretiger, veteran, is returning home to Dead End, a tiny town in
isolated rural Florida, to handle his dead uncle’s affairs. And his pawn shop
A shop part owned by
Tess, a young woman who is determined to keep the business going, is good at
what she does and has little time for him
Whatever conflicts
they may have can’t be spared any time though when a body appears on the shop’s
doorstep: and it’s not the fist. No-one told Jack how his uncle died.
Looking at this cover
I was struck by an overwhelming sense of Sookie Stackhouse Series.
Now, normally I shy away from comparisons to other book series as it inevitably
tends to cast the books your talking about in a shadow: but I’m going here
because a) I don’t think many authors are going to dispute the dominance of the
Sookie Stackhouse series in the genre and b) I’m comparing favourably
Because it has many
of the interesting themes of that series - the small town and close community
feeling. A character who is very much an every-person without being the
specialist-special-person of supreme Sueness. A world that is extremely
magically diverse with magic and wereanimals and witches and hints of many
things more. It takes a nice small town setting we don’t often see in books (in
this case a pawn shop - and doesn’t that have the chance for so many
supernatural shinies to show up?)
But it also has many
elements that improve the concept: we have characters getting involved in a
murder investigation for an actual legitimate reason rather than just
randomness (considerable suspicion of the law enforcement and their collusion
with the big bad). We have a small town that suggests and actual reason for the
supernatural to be there - with it’s own not-defined-but-often mentioned
independent history and hidden supernatural community suggests there’s a good
reason why the supernatural is here. And a similar reason why outsider
authority doesn’t run in
The world is aware of
the supernatural- but this has been developed into more than “there are
vampires”. There’s suggestion of a broader history, wars, cultural context all
from the revelations of the supernatural to the world (which I believe have
been covered in different books by the same author). But this book very
carefully focuses on the town - we have a wonderful sense of the greater, wider
world but this town is what is relevant at the moment.
Tess isn’t a
character defined by either super powers or Spunky Agency, she rarely makes
decisions that makes me despair and she doesn’t hate all other women! Her best
friend, Molly, is clearly a big part of her life, competent, accomplished and
fun. She loves her aunt and uncle who she lives with (and despite not living
with her parents isn’t overwhelmed by her Tragic Past) and has a fun female
co-worker at the pawn shop (despite her lack of gun skills). She seems to
respect the other characters around her, her neighbours in general and
generally be a pretty decent character rather than use her internal monologue
as a way to try and establish why she doesn’t belong or is superior to those
around her
