Hot Lead, Cold Iron (Mick Oberon Job)
*Starred Review* Mick Oberon, who made his debut in a 2011 short story, makes his first appearance in a full-length novel. And it’s a real corker, too. Oberon, a private eye in 1930s Chicago, has a secret: he’s a faerie prince. Well, technically, he used to be a faerie prince: he walked away from his world, stepped sideways into our world, and now he’s just trying to make it day to day in a place that is, in so many ways, scary and depressing (but he believes it’s still better than the place he left behind). When he’s approached by the wife of a local mobster, Mick is surprised to find out that she wants him to solve a special kind of missing-person case: the woman’s daughter, she says, was replaced 16 years ago by a changeling. And she wants Mick—she’s somehow aware of his special magical abilities—to find out who took her. But to do so, Mick must return to the Otherworld and confront a past he really hoped he’d left behind for good. The author leaves the door wide open for a sequel, and that’s just fine: the book is thoroughly entertaining, and Mick is a likable guy with whom we’d enjoy spending some more time. Urban-fantasy fans should be all over this one. --David Pitt