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Hummingbird Universe #3
Consequential
What do you think is worth killing for?
Fresh from her recent foray into crime-solving, demonic fallen god (and would-be detective) Sunny is back from Coventry - with a debt still owed to the murderous ghost of Lady Godiva, and now a giant mythical pig in need of babysitting on her to-do list.
What she needs, more than anything, is a nice hot bath and an episode of Poirot.
Fate, unfortunately, has other plans. As does her newest human ally, Jonas.
Plans that will lead Sunny down a conspiracy-riddled rabbit-hole of murder, mutilation and moral philosophy - and give her a brand-new reason to dust off her fedora and go chasing after the perp…
Fresh from her recent foray into crime-solving, demonic fallen god (and would-be detective) Sunny is back from Coventry - with a debt still owed to the murderous ghost of Lady Godiva, and now a giant mythical pig in need of babysitting on her to-do list.
What she needs, more than anything, is a nice hot bath and an episode of Poirot.
Fate, unfortunately, has other plans. As does her newest human ally, Jonas.
Plans that will lead Sunny down a conspiracy-riddled rabbit-hole of murder, mutilation and moral philosophy - and give her a brand-new reason to dust off her fedora and go chasing after the perp…
- GenresSupernaturalMysteryAdult
Unknown Binding
Published October 1, 2024
2 people are currently reading
23 people want to read
About the author
T.C. Parker
16 books141 followersI'm a writer and researcher based in the fox-ravaged wilds of Leicestershire.
I've been a copywriter, a lecturer and, very briefly, an academic; now I run a semiotics and cultural insight agency by day and dream up horror and crime fiction at night, when the kids are asleep.
I write mostly horror and crime, skeet enthusiastically as @tcparker.bsky.social, and post the occasional poorly-composed photo on Instagram (as @writestc).
For stories, serialised novels and other thoughts about the universe, visit/subscribe to my Substack - tcparker.substack.com
I've been a copywriter, a lecturer and, very briefly, an academic; now I run a semiotics and cultural insight agency by day and dream up horror and crime fiction at night, when the kids are asleep.
I write mostly horror and crime, skeet enthusiastically as @tcparker.bsky.social, and post the occasional poorly-composed photo on Instagram (as @writestc).
For stories, serialised novels and other thoughts about the universe, visit/subscribe to my Substack - tcparker.substack.com
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
October 15, 2024
I am loving this series and can't wait for the next one! This installment we see Sunny dive back in as a sleuth solving two different crimes. She is her normal immortal self and I love her and her snarky attitude. Her wit keeps me reading and the crime in this one is an attention grabber. Can't wait to see what shenanigans she gets up to next!
January 10, 2025
A fantastic read as always by this author. The storytelling and wording is excellent.
October 30, 2024
A demon, a necromancer, and a severed head walk into a bar...
A fun supernatural who-dun-it! I love this author's prose and lyrical writing, and look forward to reading more in the future.
A fun supernatural who-dun-it! I love this author's prose and lyrical writing, and look forward to reading more in the future.
September 13, 2024
I have had just about enough of TC Parker...to consider her an auto-read. I'm certain now she does not disappoint.
TC Parker's smart and concise writing style once again immediately draws me into our favorite demon's sleuthing antics. That is after we are gruesomely introduced to the newest psychopath with his trail of broken bodies, which turns out to be a much more involved scenario than initially appears.
Sunny is on the case of a missing person and a killer in Consequential, the latest installment of the Hummingbird Murder Mysteries, not just out of the kindness of her heart but for the simple joy of puzzling out another whodunnit, as well as "the satisfaction of petty retribution."
Parker uses such intelligent metaphors and allusions that I feel smarter every time I read one of her books. The pacing is perfect.
I am a big fan of Sunny's god-magic abilities, particularly shape-shifting and thrall. I also love her complex character as she struggles with a fledgling conscience and devotion to Jonas.
Vengeance will be had.
I highly recommend checking out any of TC Parker's books. I am a fan!
But do peruse the trigger warnings before diving in.
#TransRep #QueerRep #nonsapphic #horror #murder #series #fallengoddemon #necromancer
I received this free ARC from the author through Nefarious Bat Press, and this is my honest opinion.
TC Parker's smart and concise writing style once again immediately draws me into our favorite demon's sleuthing antics. That is after we are gruesomely introduced to the newest psychopath with his trail of broken bodies, which turns out to be a much more involved scenario than initially appears.
Sunny is on the case of a missing person and a killer in Consequential, the latest installment of the Hummingbird Murder Mysteries, not just out of the kindness of her heart but for the simple joy of puzzling out another whodunnit, as well as "the satisfaction of petty retribution."
Parker uses such intelligent metaphors and allusions that I feel smarter every time I read one of her books. The pacing is perfect.
I am a big fan of Sunny's god-magic abilities, particularly shape-shifting and thrall. I also love her complex character as she struggles with a fledgling conscience and devotion to Jonas.
Vengeance will be had.
I highly recommend checking out any of TC Parker's books. I am a fan!
But do peruse the trigger warnings before diving in.
#TransRep #QueerRep #nonsapphic #horror #murder #series #fallengoddemon #necromancer
I received this free ARC from the author through Nefarious Bat Press, and this is my honest opinion.
September 1, 2024
Absolutely delightful return to the Hummingbird universe - funny, gory, and wickedly smart.
October 27, 2024
T.C. Parker's disgraced demonic dick, Sunny, returns for a third go-round in Consequential. Inspired by the cozy mysteries of her British forebears, Parker delivers a delightful twist on the genre, incorporating elements of supernatural horror and decidedly 21st Century topics to help fuel the mystery and characters. I doubt, for instance, that the subject of fisting was ever broached with Miss Marple, let alone dragging TERFs online, but, blessedly, such are fully within the province of Parker's Hummingbird books.
This time around, Sunny is drawn into helping her friend Jonas and his boyfriend locate a missing ex known for disappearing while under the influence of drugs. Sunny, naturally, is along the way drawn into a larger investigation involving a series of abductions and the grisly discovery of desecrated corpses. Parker offers up some gnarly details on the various means by which these bodies were dispatched, but in true cozy fashion the actual violence is kept off-page lest Consequential turn into a full-bore splatterpunk case. Sex, too, is inferred -- necrophilia, in this case, because of course it is -- but left to our imaginations, for those that might want to imagine such instances of copulation with rotting corpses and severed heads. So, yes, while Parker's influences are made clear, her Hummingbird Mysteries take a decidedly different and darker approach than those murders Jessica Fletcher wrote of.
Admittedly, I'm not well-versed in the breadth and depth of cozy mysteries. I typically prefer the harder of the hardboiled and still associate its cozier siblings with fluff like house-cats solving the case of the missing pie or somesuch saccharine silliness. But I'll be damned if I don't love the hell out of Parker's Hummingbird series and Sunny herself. A demon exiled to a life amongst humans, she's goaded into these investigations by simple curiosity, and her friends who help play off her natural busybody tendencies. It's hilarious to watch this shapeshifting monstrosity play human and quote 1920s gumshoes and riff on The Godfather, because so much of what she knows about playing detective comes from the selfsame material she references throughout while uncovering Clues with a capital-C. She's also funnily and smartly loquacious, never content to use one word when ten five-dollar words will do. Even better is when the subjects of her inquiries call her out on it, amused by her antiquated fish out of water peculiarities and demanding to know, "Who talks like that?!" while she waxes on about a "laudanum haze."
There's also Parker's political sensibilities, which play into her writings here. Like its preceding entries, the cast of Consequential is sensibly diverse and suffuse with progressive politics and queer and trans identity. Safe to say, you won't ever find fascist, rich techbros and autocratic rulers as the hero of a Parker narrative because, as in the real-world, these filth are the worst of the worst, and their bullshit gets people killed. The victims of Consequential are the downtrodden and misbegotten -- the homeless, the drug addicted, sexual minorities, and sex workers -- folx the so-called elites amongst us view as little more than provincial playthings to do with upon a whim in the goriest of fashions, like a deranged child breaking their toys.
Parker brings a modern sensibility to the cozy mystery, retaining enough rough-around-the-edges accoutrements to compel and titillate but not so much as to profoundly disturb or disgust. She also smartly infuses the traditional cozy mystery tropes with cross-genre affairs, drawing in shapeshifting demons, massive man-eating pigs, ghosts, and glamours. You can tell Parker truly enjoys writing these Hummingbird Mysteries, and that sense of joy of positively infectious throughout. The name of the game here, ultimately, is fun, and, dear readers, the game is afoot!
This time around, Sunny is drawn into helping her friend Jonas and his boyfriend locate a missing ex known for disappearing while under the influence of drugs. Sunny, naturally, is along the way drawn into a larger investigation involving a series of abductions and the grisly discovery of desecrated corpses. Parker offers up some gnarly details on the various means by which these bodies were dispatched, but in true cozy fashion the actual violence is kept off-page lest Consequential turn into a full-bore splatterpunk case. Sex, too, is inferred -- necrophilia, in this case, because of course it is -- but left to our imaginations, for those that might want to imagine such instances of copulation with rotting corpses and severed heads. So, yes, while Parker's influences are made clear, her Hummingbird Mysteries take a decidedly different and darker approach than those murders Jessica Fletcher wrote of.
Admittedly, I'm not well-versed in the breadth and depth of cozy mysteries. I typically prefer the harder of the hardboiled and still associate its cozier siblings with fluff like house-cats solving the case of the missing pie or somesuch saccharine silliness. But I'll be damned if I don't love the hell out of Parker's Hummingbird series and Sunny herself. A demon exiled to a life amongst humans, she's goaded into these investigations by simple curiosity, and her friends who help play off her natural busybody tendencies. It's hilarious to watch this shapeshifting monstrosity play human and quote 1920s gumshoes and riff on The Godfather, because so much of what she knows about playing detective comes from the selfsame material she references throughout while uncovering Clues with a capital-C. She's also funnily and smartly loquacious, never content to use one word when ten five-dollar words will do. Even better is when the subjects of her inquiries call her out on it, amused by her antiquated fish out of water peculiarities and demanding to know, "Who talks like that?!" while she waxes on about a "laudanum haze."
There's also Parker's political sensibilities, which play into her writings here. Like its preceding entries, the cast of Consequential is sensibly diverse and suffuse with progressive politics and queer and trans identity. Safe to say, you won't ever find fascist, rich techbros and autocratic rulers as the hero of a Parker narrative because, as in the real-world, these filth are the worst of the worst, and their bullshit gets people killed. The victims of Consequential are the downtrodden and misbegotten -- the homeless, the drug addicted, sexual minorities, and sex workers -- folx the so-called elites amongst us view as little more than provincial playthings to do with upon a whim in the goriest of fashions, like a deranged child breaking their toys.
Parker brings a modern sensibility to the cozy mystery, retaining enough rough-around-the-edges accoutrements to compel and titillate but not so much as to profoundly disturb or disgust. She also smartly infuses the traditional cozy mystery tropes with cross-genre affairs, drawing in shapeshifting demons, massive man-eating pigs, ghosts, and glamours. You can tell Parker truly enjoys writing these Hummingbird Mysteries, and that sense of joy of positively infectious throughout. The name of the game here, ultimately, is fun, and, dear readers, the game is afoot!
October 16, 2024
This is the third Hummingbird Murder Mystery bringing us sleuthing 'Sunny' style and despite some of the grisly aspects, which in truth are only occasional, this has the feeling of cosy horror/crime and for me, A Midsomer Murders fan, I think perfect Sunday night viewing, regardless of the demonic 'PI'. (Please someone, turn this into a series - it would be great.)
I think what I particularly like about this book - and its predecessors - is T.C. Parker's style of writing, it's fluid without dumbing down, so yes, there might be the occasional word I've never heard of (and I would be disappointed if there wasn't, learning something new is always a bonus) but it's easily understood in context. I am also a huge fan of the humorous undertone, the way in which Parker can make you smile simply by using her mastery of the English language. I'm not a fan of books where the author explains everything, subtlety and nuance allow for a more entertaining and satisfying read. And Consequential certainly is that.
I think what I particularly like about this book - and its predecessors - is T.C. Parker's style of writing, it's fluid without dumbing down, so yes, there might be the occasional word I've never heard of (and I would be disappointed if there wasn't, learning something new is always a bonus) but it's easily understood in context. I am also a huge fan of the humorous undertone, the way in which Parker can make you smile simply by using her mastery of the English language. I'm not a fan of books where the author explains everything, subtlety and nuance allow for a more entertaining and satisfying read. And Consequential certainly is that.
October 23, 2024
I adore TC Parker's writing, and the Hummingbird Series in particular. Fresh from the events of "To Coventry!" we find earth-bound demigod Sunny embroiled in another detective mystery, this time dealing with a number of grisly corpses left in an empty apartment building, and a missing friend of her human associate, Jonas. As Sunny delves deeper into the mysteries, it soon becomes apparent that her two cases are linked.
This third outiing in the Hummingbird Universe is a little more gristly than it's predecessor, treading a line closer to horror than To Coventry! It still retains the series trademark wit and charm as Sunny navigates the strangeness of the modern human era. With a supporting cast of gods, human monsters and a giant wild boar, Consequential truly is a joyous thing. I can't wait to see where these characters go next.
This third outiing in the Hummingbird Universe is a little more gristly than it's predecessor, treading a line closer to horror than To Coventry! It still retains the series trademark wit and charm as Sunny navigates the strangeness of the modern human era. With a supporting cast of gods, human monsters and a giant wild boar, Consequential truly is a joyous thing. I can't wait to see where these characters go next.
August 28, 2024
I received an advance review from Nefarious Bat Press in exchange for an honest review.
The voice is so strong, and my favorite part of this novella. I immediately loved Sunny, one of the main narrators. The pace was perfect without even a moment where it dragged. Fabulous from start to finish, but I particularly loved the ending. It really brought it all home and was the pitch perfect image to finish with. I look forward to reading more from this author.
The voice is so strong, and my favorite part of this novella. I immediately loved Sunny, one of the main narrators. The pace was perfect without even a moment where it dragged. Fabulous from start to finish, but I particularly loved the ending. It really brought it all home and was the pitch perfect image to finish with. I look forward to reading more from this author.
August 2, 2024
The third book of the series and Parker leaves me wanted a 4th book which is a wonderful thing!! This book gets weirder and a little nastier as he dives into this cozy murder mystery. I loved it! TC Parker never disappoints!
September 5, 2024
Sunny's back. It's bloody. It's funny. It's 5 stars.
November 21, 2024
In this instalment of the Hummingbird murder mysteries, Sunny, an ancient god bound to Earth, is called in to investigate a series of gruesome murders but this proves far more complicated than a random maniac on a killing spree!
This is a one sitting gore fest (read the first chapter and tell me I’m wrong!) with ancient gods, magic and transmogrification set in our world. The dichotomy of the supernatural and the mundane played out on the streets of England is like nothing I’ve ever read. The dialogue flows with the darkest humour and the casual acceptance of the horror playing out.
What I love about this story and the previous book “In Coventry” is Sunny’s memories of ancient times. As she passes through a place or sees an item she recalls its origins and the infamous people associated with them, this is glorious to history mad me!
TC writes with such ease, it’s intellectually stimulating, gloriously gruesome and so much fun to read. This is the third story in the Hummingbird world but can be read as a standalone. I would highly recommend the previous books though, they are wonderful!
An auto buy author for me.
This is a one sitting gore fest (read the first chapter and tell me I’m wrong!) with ancient gods, magic and transmogrification set in our world. The dichotomy of the supernatural and the mundane played out on the streets of England is like nothing I’ve ever read. The dialogue flows with the darkest humour and the casual acceptance of the horror playing out.
What I love about this story and the previous book “In Coventry” is Sunny’s memories of ancient times. As she passes through a place or sees an item she recalls its origins and the infamous people associated with them, this is glorious to history mad me!
TC writes with such ease, it’s intellectually stimulating, gloriously gruesome and so much fun to read. This is the third story in the Hummingbird world but can be read as a standalone. I would highly recommend the previous books though, they are wonderful!
An auto buy author for me.
November 17, 2024
4 stars. Minus the abrupt ending, I liked this a lot. Not as much as the previous books but it was still good.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews