REVIEWED by Jay V.
TITLE: Wormwood Summer
AUTHOR: Kai Butler
SERIES: San Amaro Investigations #1
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 364 pages
RELEASE DATE: January 18, 2021
BLURB:
Parker Ferro owes the fae his life. They’ve come to collect.
When the Summer Queen summons Parker to her court, the private investigator knows there’s trouble brewing. Trapped into compliance by his past debt to the fae monarch, he’s tasked with locating a missing girl in San Amaro. Now he has to find the girl or give up his life.
Things only get more complicated when a very familiar cop asks Parker for his help on a case involving murdered magic users. With the victims completely drained of their magic, the San Amaro Police Department needs Parker’s special skill set to track down a killer. Navigating through San Amaro’s paranormal underbelly while dealing with his own past and this new case is the last thing Parker wants or needs.
Now Parker’s stuck trying to locate a missing girl, stop a paranormal war, find a killer, and resist Detective Nicholas King’s many charms. Here’s hoping he doesn’t die trying.
REVIEW:
Parker is just trying to survive as a private investigator. Granted, it’s mostly the paranormal and he does have that small debt of his life the fae Summer Queen but it’s still not too bad. Or maybe it is? And why does the hunky cop Nick keep showing up in his life? Things are starting to get strange, even for Parker’s world and he need to figure things out.
I have to preface this review with a caveat, but it comes with a perk. You really need to read the prequel to the series to best experience this book. Lucky you, the prequel is free – just go to Kai Butler’s site here, sign up on the email list & you’ll get A Haunting at Midwinter, which introduces the main characters and gives us the groundwork for the larger story. And it’s as a great start to the wackiness of this series. You’ll still get somewhat thrown in the deep end with an allusion to another event/case that happens between the books, but it’s easy enough to fill in the blanks.
Blended with a wry sense of humor and a mix of genres, this “opening” book in the series is off to a great start. You’ve got great world building with some fun twists and turns. Set in a slightly alternate reality that has embraced the paranormal leads to a word that is still gritty at times, but has it’s own strange societal rules. Parker is just trying to navigate this world, barely holding his finances together while trying to continue on in his mentor’s footsteps as a private investigator. Oh, and Parker has a secret – he doesn’t quite fit into any of the usual groups – witches, alchemists, werewolves, etc. So, he’s trying to hide from that, too, but people and situations keep getting thrown at him.
Parker crosses paths again with Nicolas King, a cop from the previous book, who, well, they didn’t quite meet in a tradition manner the first time but were trapped together in a haunted house. Now they continue to run into each other with the cop coming to Parker to help solve a case, while Parker is trying maintain his own cases plus there there’s the issue of the fae Summer Queen asking for help, too. Priorities must be made (and broken) and Parker is just trying to balance it all.
Part of any mystery/investigative book is uncovering the clues and discovery the underlying story so I won’t spoil much more, just know that it’s a fun ride, with some real issues thrown into the mix. Butler’s writing is sharp and helps the story along, giving great background and life to the characters, even in a world that is not quite what we think of as normal. The next book is coming out in less than 2 weeks and I can’t tell you how excited I am to continue on the adventure of Parker’s crazy life.
RATING:
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