Review: Good introductory collection of paranormal series stories
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 19, 2013
This is a group of stories about how the Lian and Figg Detective Agency got started. The collection of about 5 short stories introduce key characters and the roles they play in the series. I really enjoyed meeting all of them as they morph from a bar into a group of friends and lovers who solve paranormal crimes, all with their different specialties. There's no one style of writing or author I can compare this series to, because there's a little of this and a little of that all mixed together with the author's own brand of humor that makes it unique.Dr.Lian is a world renowned and possibly the world's foremost expert on supernatural species because they, one by one, decided that they could reveal their existence and knowledge to him. He spends his time studying and corresponding with others to gain more knowledge. He comes from old money, so he can indulge in this. For some reason, after recovering from a werewolf attack that did not injure him deeply enough to infect him, he decided to open a small pub. He had fond memories of his grandfather's pub when he was a small child and he wanted peaceful surroundings.He hired Eleanor Figg, known as Figg, to be a bar tender, who mostly protects him, brightens his days with her many shoes and bright red hair and her tendency to make him interact with the world. Figg has no supernatural abilities, but she's well armed and doesn't take crap from anybody. Even when she probably should.There's a voodoo priestess down the block, a necromancer who is undercover as a psychic, a coven of witches, a group of vampires, a helpful police officer, and the local shapeshifter group.All of whom want some kind of help from Lian, and it's Figg's job to make sure he gets through it all in one piece. And to try not to ruin too many shoes in the process. Oh, and also keep an eye on those witches because once you've seen Lian with his shirt off... well there's a reason to protect that hide, and she saw him first.Heat factor moderate.