Meet Detective
Aiden Moss. Director Warren
is mighty proud to have him on the Dublin, Ireland police force. Moss always obeys department rules and
regulations. He loves to write up
reports. He happens to also be a dragon.
Meet Aiden’s partner, Detective Torloch “Loch” Doyle. He has a short temper and a sharp
tongue. Director Warren frequently has
to write him up for breaking department rules and regulations. He hates to write up reports. He happens to also be a gargoyle.
You might wonder how well
these two dissimilar agents get along with each other. They have their moments of mutual irritation,
but they’ve made things work. For
several centuries. It helps that they
have a mutual source of annoyance.
Meet Rudy. He's a youthful faerie blessed with the magical gift of being able to materialize out
of thin air. Much to the mutual annoyance of Moss and Doyle.
What’s To Like...
If you like your fantasy novels to have a bountiful selection of magical creatures, you’re going to love A
Dragon, A Gargoyle, and A Faery Walk into a Pub. Besides the three mentioned in the title,
you’ll crosspaths with leprechauns, harpies, vampires, minotaurs, witches, sirens,
something called a púca, and a bunch more. There’s
even a crossword puzzle-loving ogre.
The storyline starts out
straightforward. There’s a new drug in
town which has mind-numbing side effects.
Literally. Victims of the drug smell
of magic (well, actually of coriander) and our heroes are charged with tracking
down its source. Things
quickly get a lot more complicated with powerful forces determined to thwart the
efforts of our detective duo, no matter what.
The use of profanity is refreshingly sparse; I only noted 8 instances in the first third of the book. In most cases where a cussword is called for, a “milder variant” was used, including shite, feck, arse, bollox, and biatch, and as such, I didn't count those as cussing. I thought this was a great innovation, which could be used by any authors writing lighthearted stories.
The tale is told in the
third-person POV, alternating between Aiden and Loch, with one exception. That might sound confusing, but I thought it worked quite well here. The world-building and character development
were both done well, and the pacing was brisk, without any slow spots in the storytelling.
Kewlest New Word ...
Púca (n.) : a mischievous spirit, often
depicted as a shape-shifting creature.
Others: Skeevy; (adj.); Craic (adj.).
Ratings…
Amazon: 4.3*/5, based on 84 ratings
and 10 reviews.
Goodreads: 4.13*/5,
based on 82
ratings and 11 reviews.
Excerpts...
“Our clothes were stolen.”
Claudine looked at them in shock. “Stolen?”
“Yep.
One minute they were there, when we came back they were gone,” Torloch
shrugged, then smirked “I guess someone wanted a free show.”
Claudine did not appear amused. “Guys, that’s bad. Really, really bad.”
“Why?
Torloch looked confused. “It’s
just a pair of jeans.”
“Intimate items—items that have touched
your skin—can be used in spells.
Tracking spells, binding spells, concealing spells,” Claudine counted
them off on her fingers. “Love spells.”
“That last one doesn’t sound too bad,”
Torloch said. (loc. 1193)
“If any of this turns out to be
intentionally misleading, we’ll come back and find you,” Torloch said as he
skimmed the names. “And if you aren’t
here, we’ll hunt you down, and drag you by the ears out of whatever hole you’re
hiding in.”
“What my partner means to say is thank you
for your assistance, we’ll be in touch if we need anything further,” Aiden
said, grabbing the gargoyle’s arm and wheeling him away.
“No, his partner didn’t mean to say any
of that,” Torloch protested. “Don’t put
words in my mouth.”
“I have to put words in your mouth,
otherwise there’s too much room for your feet,” Aiden muttered back as they
made their way to the door. (loc. 1632)
Kindle Details…
A
Dragon, A Gargoyle, and A Faery Walk into a Pub sells for $4.99
right now at Amazon, as do the other three
books in the series.
There are also several “holiday-themed” novellas related to, but not
part of this series, all in the $0.99-$2.99 price range, plus one
full-length Halloween-themed entry for $4.99.
“You do realize going
to a pub and going to a pub to work are two very different things?” (loc. 187)
There a couple of things to
quibble about. First of all, typos
abound. A lot of them were punctuation
slip-ups, plus things like diving/divining
and this/his. I was perplexed by several spelling
inconsistencies, such as malarky/malarkey,
fairie/faery, and Brennan/McBrennan. These all fell into the “either way is
correct category; but not both ways”.
Perhaps this is an inherent drawback of multiple authors, although good editing should catch these.
The biggest issue was a ploy
used in the ending, which I've never run into before. There’s a whole
chapter missing; and it’s the all-important climactic one. At first I thought it was my faulty memory, from
reading too late at night and all that.
Then I thought that somehow the printers and/or the conversion formatting process had waylaid it.
But no, in the extras at the
end of the book, an offer is made: “Want to know
what really happened when Aiden torched the pub? Click here to get the bonus chapter and jump
onto our email list!”
Really?!
I thought that closing with a
cliffhanger ending was as low as one could get.
I stand corrected.
6 Stars. One last thing. At one point a Latin phrase “in sanguine, vires et veritas” pops up. The translation for it is: “strength and truth are in the blood”. I suck at Latin. Thank goodness for Google.
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