Review: Faeries, cops, ritualistic murder....
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 11, 2011
Blood Faerie is an interesting mash-up of ritualistic murder, cop story and urban fae fantasy. Not that I get to use all those terms together in a sentence often. Set in Perth, Scotland, the story focuses on an exiled Faerie and a policeman with an uncanny ability to find trouble as they try to stop a series of ritualistic murders.While I liked the characters, and found the plot to be interesting (and the mash up idea pretty good - a bit Dresden Files-ish, or maybe more like the 80's TV series "Beauty and the Beast" (Hidden world, crime solving, etc.) I felt that the book was too short and predictable in a lot of places. I would have preferred more descriptions, more development of the magics, the relationships between faerie types and human counterparts, a greater understanding of how the faerie world works in conjuction with the human world. The other things that bothered me were the whole childhood friend storyline - it felt like reinforced padding and could have been more developed or more integrated, and the feeling of coincidences - things just falling into place, which always irks me. Mostly I just wanted things fleshed out a bit more, and was a bit frustrated as the end of the book snowballed, going breakneck speed down to the finish.I'd give this 3.5 stars rather than four, really, except Amazon doesn't do partial stars. All in all a quick, enjoyable read, my main complaint being that I feel there should be more of it. (But then again, I've been reading fantasy epics/trilogies recently...)Review copy of the ebook supplied through the author's LibraryThing giveaway.