Mark Del Franco

Connor Grey was once a hotshot Guild investigator with amazing magical powers. After an encounter with a radical environmentalist elf, his powers have been crippled and he is forced to survive on a disability pension and consulting work for the Boston Police Department.

Connor is called in my Boston PD detective Murdock when bodies of fairy prostitutes missing their hearts are found in the Weird, a decrepit neighborhood. The Guild has passed the crime to the Boston PD since they have more "important" crimes to investigate. Connor soon recognizes that the crimes are part of a magical ritual but doesn't know which one or what the goal might be.

As he and Murdock investigate, Connor gets help from his friends including a flit named Joe.

Connor was an interesting character who is still in the denial stage of grief about losing his powers and place. He is constantly longing for what he once had and only barely works to redevelop his once strong powers. He does have a nice circle of friends who are ready to help him or kick him in the butt if he needs that.

I enjoyed the worldbuilding in this story which, since the Convergence, has the fae integrated into regular human life. It is also concerned with a rivalry that could burst into a war between the fairies and the elves.

This was entertaining urban fantasy with an interesting world and an intriguing main character.… (meer)

The first Laura Blackstone urban fantasy title introduces a new world where the fey have come out and are playing politics.

Laura Blackstone has a number of identities. She's a PR person for the Guild. She's an undercover agent for the fey intelligence agency. And she's undercover on a human SWAT team as the fey representative.

Keeping all of her personas straight has made her concerned that she might be losing her real self. But she doesn't have time to worry about that because it looks like some disaffected fey want to start a war between fey and humans and Laura in all her personas has to find a way to keep that from happening.

I enjoyed the worldbuilding in this story. It was also filled with action. There was even the possibility of romance with one of the other characters.

It was an engaging story.… (meer)

Surprisingly good, I don't normally like urban fantasy where the magic is so open in the world where elves and fairys hang about with humans with no one bats an eyelid. I like my urban fantasy to have the supernatural to be hidden from the general public and wizards to be working behind the scenes being manipulative bastards. But that's just me so I wasn't expecting this novel to work for me but it did, I think because I enjoyed the mystery element of the book so much I think it's the first book I read about male fairy prostitutes being hunted down by a serial killer. I enjoyed all of the characters there all felt real to me and I didn't guess the ending. I will be checking out the next book in the series… (meer)