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The Midnight Detective Agency #2
Murderous Faeries
Fourteen dead faeries. One reporter who’s new to the job. And a whole lot of people who don’t want her to find out the truth.
Tessa O'Hara never dreamed of being an investigative reporter, but here she is, solving magical murders for the Queen and King of the Fae—and loving it. Her second job takes her to Santa Fe, where fourteen faeries have been brutally killed. But with no clues and no prime suspects, Tessa’s at a loss.
Assigned to help solve the case with vampiric detective Thomas Bloodsworth, Tessa has more than just criminals to contend with. A grumpy hobgoblin medical examiner and nasty fae hinder the investigation at every turn, and they’re not the only ones who want her to fail.
Can Tessa find a way through the misdirection and crack the case before a faerie clan war ignites?
Tessa O'Hara never dreamed of being an investigative reporter, but here she is, solving magical murders for the Queen and King of the Fae—and loving it. Her second job takes her to Santa Fe, where fourteen faeries have been brutally killed. But with no clues and no prime suspects, Tessa’s at a loss.
Assigned to help solve the case with vampiric detective Thomas Bloodsworth, Tessa has more than just criminals to contend with. A grumpy hobgoblin medical examiner and nasty fae hinder the investigation at every turn, and they’re not the only ones who want her to fail.
Can Tessa find a way through the misdirection and crack the case before a faerie clan war ignites?
212 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 25, 2024
4 people are currently reading
11 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
March 25, 2024
Update March 25th, 2024:
Murderous Faeries is out NOW on KU, ebook, and paperback form. I AM SO EXCITED! Thank you to everyone's love and support the past year.
Buy a copy here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C7PPRYVP
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Oh my, what's this? The second book in the Midnight Detective Agency series coming out March 27th? Yes, that's correct.
Tessa and Bloodsworth are at it again, but the magical murders that must be solved are in Santa Fe, New Mexico this time. There are a lot of dead faeries and not a lot of answers, but the duo are determined to solve this case and chug a bunch of coffee along the way.
Huge thanks to Fay Lane, my cover artist, and Sarah Chorn, my editor. Your work in this second in series means so much to me!
Murderous Faeries is out NOW on KU, ebook, and paperback form. I AM SO EXCITED! Thank you to everyone's love and support the past year.
Buy a copy here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C7PPRYVP
------
Oh my, what's this? The second book in the Midnight Detective Agency series coming out March 27th? Yes, that's correct.
Tessa and Bloodsworth are at it again, but the magical murders that must be solved are in Santa Fe, New Mexico this time. There are a lot of dead faeries and not a lot of answers, but the duo are determined to solve this case and chug a bunch of coffee along the way.
Huge thanks to Fay Lane, my cover artist, and Sarah Chorn, my editor. Your work in this second in series means so much to me!
February 6, 2024
I was provided an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
To top off my review of "Murderous Faeries", Book 2 of The Midnight Detective Agency, I need to make 1 thing very clear - something I mentioned at the beginning of my review for "Obsidian Murders" (the first book of the series): I am most definitely not the target audience for Nicole's work with this series. I knew this going into the first book, and rated it accordingly, and I knew this just as much coming into this one.
But I really do have to stress this fact, because I feel very conflicted about the book as a result, and even more conflicted about my review of it in light of it. In essence, the fact that this book is not "meant" for me has a huge sway on how I feel about it. But, rather than that being a simple bias that heavily tilts my thoughts/feelings in one direction, here it's more like a swing, waving me back and forth between 2 different dispositions that are fundamentally at odds with each other, and the more I act upon swinging, the greater the distance between the peaks on either side. The only way to get off the swing is to let it come to a stop itself.
That's what I hope to do with this review. But remember: while I will try to review this book in accordance with who it might actually be targeted for, I've scarcely had a harder time doing that very thing with any book than I am having with this one.
These books are not something I would have picked up to just read on my own, as I said in my review for the first book (in fact, a number of the things I say here will be similar to that first review, so keep that in mind). The short of it is that while I don't inherently think these are *bad*, they are certainly not for me, which I think is fair to say. Knowing that I wouldn't have read these without being offered the ARCs is important context.
I find myself enjoying some things, but not others.
Let's start off with something I do like: I like the conceit of "Murderous Faeries". The execution of the plot and the pacing maybe wasn't as tight or interesting as each step of "Obsidian Murders" was (not least because the side characters of that first book were a highlight throughout, and made up for when the goings-on weren't the forefront aspect), but what happens based on the blurb is good. However, compared to the book, things felt a bit repetitive here, with a little less of that interesting stuff going on. Tessa plays a more active role in some regards, particularly in dialogue and interrogation and I found that fun; the trade-off is that she also moves into such a passive role in other regards that she almost feels like the wrong character to be exploring the story through. (Side-note: this was actually a little bit of what made the climax of book 1 underwhelming, because Tessa can't even enter the Other World as a human mortal, so anything and everything that goes on there simply has to be relayed to her after the fact by others, which is unfortunate. It's a criticism that this entry also shares in that much of what I find interesting or want to see on page we literally CAN'T because of Tessa being a solo first-person narrator).
The highlight of THIS book for me though was absolutely the banter between the main characters that were here. Drusil gets to be a bigger part of the group, which I heartily enjoyed, and of course Tessa and Bloodsworth are great in their dialogue and interactions (although I do have a bone to pick with this aspect, sad to say.) Unfortunately, most of the other characters I found to be rather bland or disinteresting, but the ones that shine really shine.
The bone that I have to pick with Tessa and Bloodsworth, however, does a little bit to sour my thoughts on the book and even series as a whole. Nicole has said that these two are not meant to be romantically involved; they are a merely platonic, work-based friendship. Don't get me wrong, this is most definitely not a bad thing in and of itself - I actually totally got this dynamic in "Obsidian Murders"! I even welcomed it! "So, what's the problem now?" you might ask. The problem is that in "Murderous Faeries", this dynamic and the banter therein is INCREDIBLE...in the context of a slowly budding relationship. There are too many things here that, if Nicole truly intends for this partnership to be 100% platonic through the whole series, feel *off* a bit. If this were the start of - as I said - a budding romance, one that slowly develops over multiple books, I would have 0 complaints here, because that's EXACTLY what this feels like, and it's done so brilliantly I could almost recommend reading the book for these two characters alone, if you're into slow-burn romance plots. As mentioned, Nicole has said that is NOT the intention for them, so I find myself really disappointed with this aspect, despite how good it is.
But now we turn to what I generally didn't like much, and I hate to admit that this portion will probably be rather lengthy. I additionally apologize ahead of time if this gets to be a little ranty at times; as this is an ARC review, I want to be as eloquent and reasoned in my thoughts as I can be.
Minor gripes aside (because, really, the majority of them are small enough issues that I can overlook them given the context of the book not being "for" me), the writing is what really turned me off this time. Surprisingly, I didn't feel anywhere near this strongly in the first book, though I do recall having particular issue with how phrases like "junk food" were repeated in that one. In this one...it's a hell of a lot of words. It's almost incessant, and it really killed the vibe for me by the time I got 50-60% through. Although I originally thought that my taking a few weeks to read "Obsidian Murders" hurt it a little, I'm now thinking that timeframe actually worked to its benefit, because reading "Murderous Faeries in 2 days was obviously not the right approach for me.
Anyway, part of my issues with the writing also come with the impasse that the target audience crosses it with. While I am not the target audience of The Midnight Detective Agency, these books are technically targeted at adults. Technically.
Sometimes it's hard to believe that based on the writing alone.
"Murderous Faeries" reads very YA and even middle grade at times with the way it repeats words and phrases and the whatnot. It's very handholding, and absolutely does not trust the reader to remember what's being referenced even if it was just mentioned the previous sentence. This really holds the book back. Pronouns exist for this reason, and so too the incredibly broad depths of the English language; I regret that I found myself rolling my eyes OFTEN at things being said in the narration that, like, DUH, you just said that 2 seconds ago, can we start saying this in a new way please?
Imagine a passage like this: "My friend bought me a coffee. Coffee is my lifeblood. I drink coffee all of the time because coffee wakes me up, and caffeine stimulates me. I took a sip of the coffee and set it on the table."
This isn't a direct quote from the book (though Tessa's frankly exorbitant obsession with coffee is reflected in it), and in fairness nothing in the book is this egregious, but after 170 pages of it in 2 days, this type of thing really started to grate on me. These books aren't necessarily targeted toward a YA or middle-school age audience or anything, but the writing really comes off that way, and I think that hurts it. If not for the main characters being adults, living on their own, having adult responsibilities and jobs, everything else about the book feels like it fits in that category.
Of course, that also isn't to say YA or Middle Grade are a bad thing either, because they’re not. I just read another Rick Riordan book right before this one. I may have a lot of nostalgia and implicit respect for Riordan's work, but even when taking those googles off, his books, which ARE targeted at middle schoolers, don't have such clunky or distracting prose. I can handle various types of prose, and generally don't "take points away" for the writing's sake in any given novel, but I do when the writing is actively distracting, and it was definitely distracting here.
THAT ALL SAID:
Recommending "Murderous Faeries" is an impossible predicament for me, coming from where I come from. In the early portions of this review especially, but throughout the rest of it as well, I talked about how this isn't targeted towards me. I still gave my opinions on a few different key factors that obviously decided how I felt about it, because I do still think my opinion is "valid", but I don't think my review is completely “fair” per se, because of the context I've laid out.
"Murderous Faeries" is not for me, as we’ve endlessly established. That's fine, but the REASONS I think it’s not for me mean that I can't properly "recommend" this book to the general reading populace, because I think the vast majority of people reading this review (on my Goodreads anyway, or similar platforms), have tastes that are generally quite similar to mine. I therefore don’t exactly anticipate that this would work for any of my regular review-readers any more than it did for me.
On the other hand, I also can't properly say “I don't recommend this” either. Like the analogous example from earlier, it's just the opposite peak of the swing. I can't anti-recommend this because how the hell could I do that when it isn't FOR me in the first place? It doesn't feel right to go either direction. While my opinion is obviously still valid - I read the book, I'm allowed to have thoughts - I don't think my opinion is RELIABLE for who this is meant to be for. As such, I do not give an answer to whether I recommend this or not, for it is the only way to stop the swing from, er, swinging, and let me get off it.
It's kind of a shame, because I genuinely found "Obsidian Murders" to be a fun, even cozy, mystery romp with a lot of flashes of stuff I loved, albeit in a combined whole that wasn't fully "my thing". "Murderous Faeries" confirmed pretty solidly these aren't meant to be read by me, and as such I think I will be stopping with The Midnight Detective Agency here.
Maybe I'll continue in the future, but while the rest of it is being written, I think I want to make other stuff a priority for the time being.
Thank you to Nicole for providing the ARC for this review.
To top off my review of "Murderous Faeries", Book 2 of The Midnight Detective Agency, I need to make 1 thing very clear - something I mentioned at the beginning of my review for "Obsidian Murders" (the first book of the series): I am most definitely not the target audience for Nicole's work with this series. I knew this going into the first book, and rated it accordingly, and I knew this just as much coming into this one.
But I really do have to stress this fact, because I feel very conflicted about the book as a result, and even more conflicted about my review of it in light of it. In essence, the fact that this book is not "meant" for me has a huge sway on how I feel about it. But, rather than that being a simple bias that heavily tilts my thoughts/feelings in one direction, here it's more like a swing, waving me back and forth between 2 different dispositions that are fundamentally at odds with each other, and the more I act upon swinging, the greater the distance between the peaks on either side. The only way to get off the swing is to let it come to a stop itself.
That's what I hope to do with this review. But remember: while I will try to review this book in accordance with who it might actually be targeted for, I've scarcely had a harder time doing that very thing with any book than I am having with this one.
These books are not something I would have picked up to just read on my own, as I said in my review for the first book (in fact, a number of the things I say here will be similar to that first review, so keep that in mind). The short of it is that while I don't inherently think these are *bad*, they are certainly not for me, which I think is fair to say. Knowing that I wouldn't have read these without being offered the ARCs is important context.
I find myself enjoying some things, but not others.
Let's start off with something I do like: I like the conceit of "Murderous Faeries". The execution of the plot and the pacing maybe wasn't as tight or interesting as each step of "Obsidian Murders" was (not least because the side characters of that first book were a highlight throughout, and made up for when the goings-on weren't the forefront aspect), but what happens based on the blurb is good. However, compared to the book, things felt a bit repetitive here, with a little less of that interesting stuff going on. Tessa plays a more active role in some regards, particularly in dialogue and interrogation and I found that fun; the trade-off is that she also moves into such a passive role in other regards that she almost feels like the wrong character to be exploring the story through. (Side-note: this was actually a little bit of what made the climax of book 1 underwhelming, because Tessa can't even enter the Other World as a human mortal, so anything and everything that goes on there simply has to be relayed to her after the fact by others, which is unfortunate. It's a criticism that this entry also shares in that much of what I find interesting or want to see on page we literally CAN'T because of Tessa being a solo first-person narrator).
The highlight of THIS book for me though was absolutely the banter between the main characters that were here. Drusil gets to be a bigger part of the group, which I heartily enjoyed, and of course Tessa and Bloodsworth are great in their dialogue and interactions (although I do have a bone to pick with this aspect, sad to say.) Unfortunately, most of the other characters I found to be rather bland or disinteresting, but the ones that shine really shine.
The bone that I have to pick with Tessa and Bloodsworth, however, does a little bit to sour my thoughts on the book and even series as a whole. Nicole has said that these two are not meant to be romantically involved; they are a merely platonic, work-based friendship. Don't get me wrong, this is most definitely not a bad thing in and of itself - I actually totally got this dynamic in "Obsidian Murders"! I even welcomed it! "So, what's the problem now?" you might ask. The problem is that in "Murderous Faeries", this dynamic and the banter therein is INCREDIBLE...in the context of a slowly budding relationship. There are too many things here that, if Nicole truly intends for this partnership to be 100% platonic through the whole series, feel *off* a bit. If this were the start of - as I said - a budding romance, one that slowly develops over multiple books, I would have 0 complaints here, because that's EXACTLY what this feels like, and it's done so brilliantly I could almost recommend reading the book for these two characters alone, if you're into slow-burn romance plots. As mentioned, Nicole has said that is NOT the intention for them, so I find myself really disappointed with this aspect, despite how good it is.
But now we turn to what I generally didn't like much, and I hate to admit that this portion will probably be rather lengthy. I additionally apologize ahead of time if this gets to be a little ranty at times; as this is an ARC review, I want to be as eloquent and reasoned in my thoughts as I can be.
Minor gripes aside (because, really, the majority of them are small enough issues that I can overlook them given the context of the book not being "for" me), the writing is what really turned me off this time. Surprisingly, I didn't feel anywhere near this strongly in the first book, though I do recall having particular issue with how phrases like "junk food" were repeated in that one. In this one...it's a hell of a lot of words. It's almost incessant, and it really killed the vibe for me by the time I got 50-60% through. Although I originally thought that my taking a few weeks to read "Obsidian Murders" hurt it a little, I'm now thinking that timeframe actually worked to its benefit, because reading "Murderous Faeries in 2 days was obviously not the right approach for me.
Anyway, part of my issues with the writing also come with the impasse that the target audience crosses it with. While I am not the target audience of The Midnight Detective Agency, these books are technically targeted at adults. Technically.
Sometimes it's hard to believe that based on the writing alone.
"Murderous Faeries" reads very YA and even middle grade at times with the way it repeats words and phrases and the whatnot. It's very handholding, and absolutely does not trust the reader to remember what's being referenced even if it was just mentioned the previous sentence. This really holds the book back. Pronouns exist for this reason, and so too the incredibly broad depths of the English language; I regret that I found myself rolling my eyes OFTEN at things being said in the narration that, like, DUH, you just said that 2 seconds ago, can we start saying this in a new way please?
Imagine a passage like this: "My friend bought me a coffee. Coffee is my lifeblood. I drink coffee all of the time because coffee wakes me up, and caffeine stimulates me. I took a sip of the coffee and set it on the table."
This isn't a direct quote from the book (though Tessa's frankly exorbitant obsession with coffee is reflected in it), and in fairness nothing in the book is this egregious, but after 170 pages of it in 2 days, this type of thing really started to grate on me. These books aren't necessarily targeted toward a YA or middle-school age audience or anything, but the writing really comes off that way, and I think that hurts it. If not for the main characters being adults, living on their own, having adult responsibilities and jobs, everything else about the book feels like it fits in that category.
Of course, that also isn't to say YA or Middle Grade are a bad thing either, because they’re not. I just read another Rick Riordan book right before this one. I may have a lot of nostalgia and implicit respect for Riordan's work, but even when taking those googles off, his books, which ARE targeted at middle schoolers, don't have such clunky or distracting prose. I can handle various types of prose, and generally don't "take points away" for the writing's sake in any given novel, but I do when the writing is actively distracting, and it was definitely distracting here.
THAT ALL SAID:
Recommending "Murderous Faeries" is an impossible predicament for me, coming from where I come from. In the early portions of this review especially, but throughout the rest of it as well, I talked about how this isn't targeted towards me. I still gave my opinions on a few different key factors that obviously decided how I felt about it, because I do still think my opinion is "valid", but I don't think my review is completely “fair” per se, because of the context I've laid out.
"Murderous Faeries" is not for me, as we’ve endlessly established. That's fine, but the REASONS I think it’s not for me mean that I can't properly "recommend" this book to the general reading populace, because I think the vast majority of people reading this review (on my Goodreads anyway, or similar platforms), have tastes that are generally quite similar to mine. I therefore don’t exactly anticipate that this would work for any of my regular review-readers any more than it did for me.
On the other hand, I also can't properly say “I don't recommend this” either. Like the analogous example from earlier, it's just the opposite peak of the swing. I can't anti-recommend this because how the hell could I do that when it isn't FOR me in the first place? It doesn't feel right to go either direction. While my opinion is obviously still valid - I read the book, I'm allowed to have thoughts - I don't think my opinion is RELIABLE for who this is meant to be for. As such, I do not give an answer to whether I recommend this or not, for it is the only way to stop the swing from, er, swinging, and let me get off it.
It's kind of a shame, because I genuinely found "Obsidian Murders" to be a fun, even cozy, mystery romp with a lot of flashes of stuff I loved, albeit in a combined whole that wasn't fully "my thing". "Murderous Faeries" confirmed pretty solidly these aren't meant to be read by me, and as such I think I will be stopping with The Midnight Detective Agency here.
Maybe I'll continue in the future, but while the rest of it is being written, I think I want to make other stuff a priority for the time being.
Thank you to Nicole for providing the ARC for this review.
March 29, 2024
Looking for Clues . . .
Tessa O'Hara is an investigative reporter who is expected to solve magical murders for the Queen and King of the Fae. She gets paid whether she is working on a case or not, so right now, she has been enjoying the slower pace. It gives her time to visit Damien at the coffee shop. But soon she and Thomas Bloodsworth, her tattooed 500-year-old vampire detective partner, will be off on a 5-hour flight to Santa Fe for another case, a very odd one, where 14 Faeries were found dead on a man’s front lawn, bleeding from multiple wounds all over their bodies. Since they were covered in blood, Bloodsworth believes they were murdered. And it seems no one wants to cooperate in getting this solved. With no clues and no suspects, this is going to be a difficult case. Even the hobgoblin medical examiner is grumpy! So grab your copy and try to find some clues to offer so they can close their second case together.
You will have fun meeting the wild cast of characters in this story. There is much to chuckle about as things have a tendency to go wrong. I vicariously joined in the heavy coffee drinking sessions so I could try to keep up with them on this journey! It was definitely different, but I did have fun and am ready for the next book!
Tessa O'Hara is an investigative reporter who is expected to solve magical murders for the Queen and King of the Fae. She gets paid whether she is working on a case or not, so right now, she has been enjoying the slower pace. It gives her time to visit Damien at the coffee shop. But soon she and Thomas Bloodsworth, her tattooed 500-year-old vampire detective partner, will be off on a 5-hour flight to Santa Fe for another case, a very odd one, where 14 Faeries were found dead on a man’s front lawn, bleeding from multiple wounds all over their bodies. Since they were covered in blood, Bloodsworth believes they were murdered. And it seems no one wants to cooperate in getting this solved. With no clues and no suspects, this is going to be a difficult case. Even the hobgoblin medical examiner is grumpy! So grab your copy and try to find some clues to offer so they can close their second case together.
You will have fun meeting the wild cast of characters in this story. There is much to chuckle about as things have a tendency to go wrong. I vicariously joined in the heavy coffee drinking sessions so I could try to keep up with them on this journey! It was definitely different, but I did have fun and am ready for the next book!
January 26, 2024
I was given an advance copy to review this book. So here is my spoiler-free review of the second novel in “The Midnight Detective Agency” series: Murderous Faeries.
“Most faeries like to toy with one another during combat.”
When you read lines like that in a book, of course you’re going to continue reading. Who doesn’t want to see faeries toying with one another during combat?
The Set-Up: The novel sets itself up with a quick push, which is what I’ve come to experience when reading Nicole’s novels. She gets right to the point, sticking the reader with the essentials while hitting the ground running.Tessa receives the inciting incident that propels her into her adventure before chapter one concludes. There is enough information to get you on board with Tessa and Thomas Bloodsworth, so you know what, where, why, and how this story exists.
The Case: There is enough in the case to make you think while also leading you through with some solid breadcrumbs. You never feel lost in following along with Tessa or the conversations with the other characters. You get why and where they are going with each new discovery. And since the chapters are tight, you’re never overwhelmed by too much information at any given time. I don’t want to give anything away, but anything is on the table by the end.
“My pizza was double cheese with a hand-tossed crust.” Any book with pizza in it makes me happy.
Second Book: If you’ve read my review of the first book in the series, you know that I enjoyed the vivid world-building, character development, and inventive magic. This second installment continues to build on the already familiar world of the Midnight Detective Agency series while also building upon newer ideas. You can tell Nicole loves her characters and takes care of them. Like with Bloodsworth, he’s a fun character, not because we share the same first name.
All hobgoblins are annoying in real life, so why would they be any different in a fantasy magical realism novel? Okay, that was a terrible generalization to make about a made-up fantasy creature. Because, honestly, I know several hobgoblins in real life who are excellent poker players and tell fantastic jokes.
“Most faeries like to toy with one another during combat.”
When you read lines like that in a book, of course you’re going to continue reading. Who doesn’t want to see faeries toying with one another during combat?
The Set-Up: The novel sets itself up with a quick push, which is what I’ve come to experience when reading Nicole’s novels. She gets right to the point, sticking the reader with the essentials while hitting the ground running.Tessa receives the inciting incident that propels her into her adventure before chapter one concludes. There is enough information to get you on board with Tessa and Thomas Bloodsworth, so you know what, where, why, and how this story exists.
The Case: There is enough in the case to make you think while also leading you through with some solid breadcrumbs. You never feel lost in following along with Tessa or the conversations with the other characters. You get why and where they are going with each new discovery. And since the chapters are tight, you’re never overwhelmed by too much information at any given time. I don’t want to give anything away, but anything is on the table by the end.
“My pizza was double cheese with a hand-tossed crust.” Any book with pizza in it makes me happy.
Second Book: If you’ve read my review of the first book in the series, you know that I enjoyed the vivid world-building, character development, and inventive magic. This second installment continues to build on the already familiar world of the Midnight Detective Agency series while also building upon newer ideas. You can tell Nicole loves her characters and takes care of them. Like with Bloodsworth, he’s a fun character, not because we share the same first name.
All hobgoblins are annoying in real life, so why would they be any different in a fantasy magical realism novel? Okay, that was a terrible generalization to make about a made-up fantasy creature. Because, honestly, I know several hobgoblins in real life who are excellent poker players and tell fantastic jokes.
March 25, 2024
Tessa and Bloodsworth have done it again! I just love the way their friendship has grown since they met in the first book. They make an awesome team and are so much fun to read. The mystery in Murderous Faeries was also a blast. The descriptions can get a bit gory at times, but not gratuitously so. If you want an urban fantasy mystery that is creative, fast-paced, and humorful, this is a must read!
May 13, 2024
Chicken soup for the faerie PI soul. Simple and sweet (aside from the gruesome murders) and put a smile on my face.
February 20, 2024
I was provided an ARC of this novel by Nicole Pierman in exchange for a fair review
Book 2 of Nicole Brona's (Pierman) Midnight Detective Agency series. What will be a series of 6, book II picks up shortly after where book 1 left off, three weeks to be precise. Do you need to read book 1 to understand book II, not necessarily, different mystery, same main cast of characters doing the sleuthing, but it would be best to read book 1 to have a good foundation for the character work done for the main cast. With the preamble done, book II moves away from snow infested Bethesda Maryland to Santa Fe New Mexico, to solve a series of gristly supernatural murders. Since the mystery is at the center of it, I won't comment on the plot, but I can say that the story unfolds at a quick pace with clear writing so it makes for an effective page turner. Like with book 1, the heart of the novel lies with the main two characters and their banter, and that is where the novel excels in my opinion, which makes it an easy going and fun book to read.
Book 2 of Nicole Brona's (Pierman) Midnight Detective Agency series. What will be a series of 6, book II picks up shortly after where book 1 left off, three weeks to be precise. Do you need to read book 1 to understand book II, not necessarily, different mystery, same main cast of characters doing the sleuthing, but it would be best to read book 1 to have a good foundation for the character work done for the main cast. With the preamble done, book II moves away from snow infested Bethesda Maryland to Santa Fe New Mexico, to solve a series of gristly supernatural murders. Since the mystery is at the center of it, I won't comment on the plot, but I can say that the story unfolds at a quick pace with clear writing so it makes for an effective page turner. Like with book 1, the heart of the novel lies with the main two characters and their banter, and that is where the novel excels in my opinion, which makes it an easy going and fun book to read.
October 8, 2025
Tessa and Bloodworth have their second case – 14 dead fairies in Santa Fe.
No one knows why, the how is unusual and there is quite a mystery. Aided by another elf, two others from the other side, a grumpy hobgoblin, Tessa’s house fairy, Dru, they definitely have a job in front of them.
Tessa has a bit of a hard time with the bodies but she fights it and gives some insightful ideas. Bloodworth is supportive of Tessa and listens to what she has to say.
The search for answers is not an easy one but it is well done.
I love the interactions between the characters, the bond between the two is getting stronger and they work so well together.
This doesn’t have action but it does have the mystery, surprises and humour.
A fun, quick, enjoyable read.
May 4, 2024
Almost There.
So far in book one and two you have some good characters but there is not enough stuffing in your plots. I like to try to figure out the ending before I get to the end of the book. Your plots go all over the place without enough facts to tie together to make a good mystery. It make no logical reasoning how they got from dead fae on the lawn to family's fighting. There has to be a logic. Your characters are great though, the female could stop being so wimpy or at least learn to fake it. To be an investigational journalist you have to be stronger then that. But you are so close to a five star, and I don't give out many of those.
So far in book one and two you have some good characters but there is not enough stuffing in your plots. I like to try to figure out the ending before I get to the end of the book. Your plots go all over the place without enough facts to tie together to make a good mystery. It make no logical reasoning how they got from dead fae on the lawn to family's fighting. There has to be a logic. Your characters are great though, the female could stop being so wimpy or at least learn to fake it. To be an investigational journalist you have to be stronger then that. But you are so close to a five star, and I don't give out many of those.
March 25, 2024
This is a great book that I very much enjoyed reading this is book 2 in the series it is a great book to read I really enjoyed this book.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
March 11, 2025
4.2
Very solid second book in series
I love the additions to the original "team"
Nicole has a knack at creating this community of Fae
Very solid second book in series
I love the additions to the original "team"
Nicole has a knack at creating this community of Fae
September 21, 2025
I thought I loved Bloodsworth, but now I've fallen totally in love with Drusil. I want a house faerie... and pizza with fries!
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