In Deep Coprolite: Shade the Collector #2

by Douglas Lumsden

LET SLEEPING DUNG LIE!
Benedict Shade, were-cat and collector of exotic magical artifacts, is tasked by the Lord’s Investigation Agency to “collect” (i.e., “steal”) two pieces of fossilized dung from a river spirit in a backwoods town. What seems to be a routine job (for him) turns out to be anything but. Everyone in town believes Shade is an undercover agent for the LIA, a charge his hepcat buddy, Dwayne, is quick to remind him is true. A mysterious femme fatale can’t decide whether to seduce Shade or let him be killed by a horde of human mudfish. And if Shade can’t play marriage counselor to a pair of squabbling spirits, the result could be a cataclysmic natural disaster!

425 pages, Paperback

Published August 1, 2025

About the author

My parents raised me right. Any mistakes I made were my own. Hopefully, I learned from them.

I earned a doctorate in medieval European history at the University of California Santa Barbara. Go Gauchos! I taught world history at a couple of colleges before settling into a private college prep high school in Monterey. After I retired, I began to write an urban fantasy series featuring hardboiled private eye Alexander Southerland as he cruises through the mean streets of Yerba City and interacts with trolls, femme fatales, shape-shifters, witches, and corrupt city officials.

I am happily married to my wife, Rita. The two of us can be found most days pounding the pavement in our running shoes. Rita listens to all of my ideas and reads all of my work. Her advice is beyond value. In return, I make her tea. It's a pretty sweet deal. We have two cats named Cinderella and Prince who are happy to stay indoors. They demand that we tell them how pretty they are.

See my blog at https://douglaslumsden.blogspot.com/

Visit my website at https://douglaslumsdenauthor.com

Reviews

[Charles Cavendish · Rating 5 out of 5]

A full review will follow but the master of the fantasy / noir mash up has done it again!

In Deep Coprolite is mystery within an enigma, set in backwater town that would give Twin Peaks a run for its money.

Shade (the Collector) and his best buddy Dwayne are thrust into tracking down some very special crap (pun intended) and have to battle river spirits, a massive bear and more shape shifters than you can shake a paw, claw, wing at...

This was a whole heap of fun, told in the unique style that Douglas has. I enjoyed it from the first page to the last and far more detailed review is on its way.

[Assaph Mehr]

Readers of my reviews and blog know I love Lumsden's noir modern alt-history fantasy world.

What to Expect

A new adventure for Shade the Collector and his buddy Dwayne. This time a river spirit entrusts him with a coprolite (petrified excrement) to hide and guard. Naturally, the shadowy intelligence agency that employs him on occasion immediately gets him to find a matching piece -- or else.

When follows is a small-town adventure, where nothing is quite what is seems on the surface and old spirits roam land (and still vie for dominance).

What I liked

Lumsden certainly hit his stride. Though the book is longer than previous, it doesn't feel that way. The pace is clipping, the action gripping, and the horrors chilling. Lumsden has a unique take on shapeshifters, and with Shade being one we get a front-row view into their world. This and the world-building in general make it one of the most original urban fantasy worlds / series today.

What to be aware of

This is book two of Lumsden's second series in that world. That said, there is no problem jumping right in. There are elements to Shade's life that form an overall arc, but if you want to jump in here you can.

Felix's and Jack's Reviews

Both Felix and Jack enjoyed the novel tremendously. Felix was a friend of the previous protagonist, but Shade is another one he could share drinks with. Morally grey protagonists is a theme he enjoys.

Jack found the discourse on shapeshifters and nature spirits very illuminating. Different from his world, so fascinating on a professional level.

Summary

Highly, highly recommended if you want original urban fantasy. If you want a taste, read my review of the first book or the interview with Shade on The Protagonist Speaks.

--

Enjoying the reviews, but wondering who the heck are those Felix and Jack fellows? Glad you asked! Felix is the protagonist of the Togas, Daggers, and Magic series, an historical-fantasy blend of a paranormal detective on the background of ancient Rome, and Jack is the police detective running the Unusual Crimes Squad, dealing in occult crimes in modern-day Australia.

Assaph Mehr, author of Murder In Absentia: A story of Togas, Daggers, and Magic - for lovers of Ancient Rome, Murder Mysteries, and Urban Fantasy.

[Ziggy Nixon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will tell a tale… and you will listen.

Authors really appreciate it when you write a nice review when you've finished their books. Well, consider it dung! OK, granted Douglas Lumsden's "In Deep Coprolite: Shade the Collector #2" is full of crap - well, to be exact, the book contains more than enough fossilized rockhard fecal matter in the form of coprolite - trust me, it's a real thing (google it, I dare you!) - to satisfy anyone… even if it does only look like an old piece of dried-up shit! Obviously, that's not a spoiler, as you can see it's in the actual title which already should inspire confidence that things are moving in the right direction! I can only confirm: this latest chapter featuring our "collector" (read: thief) and were-cat Benedict Shade is truly a solid number two for what I'm hoping will be a long series. No ifs, ands, or butts about it!

It’s okay. He’s not insane. I don’t think.

Anyway, if you're not feeling too flushed by now, I don't want to waste any more time. So pull up a stool and let's get this movement started while I drop the full scoop on my rectum, I mean, reaction to this terrific tale. I composted it myself and if I may be so bold, I don't think it stinks at all! Now if I can just keep myself from stepping in it like I do just about every morning walking the puppy, well… Not that I dislike cats, mind you, but my better half would only agree to a dog. And yes, I am a good Puppy Papa because even now I have a pocket full of "doodie bags" on me for any surprises! Man, they got mad at the TSA check-in about those last time…

Don’t try to figure it out. Your brain is too small.

In all honesty - which I'll maintain only while discussing the book - I am still getting used to the change of main characters from the days of noir-y goodness courtesy of Alexander Southerland, P.I. You know: the rugged, square-jawed absolute Dude of a Man (all caps!) that patrolled the streets of Yerba City, mixing wits, flying fists, and sometimes even rough hands and even lips with trolls, gnomes, nymphs, gods and/or Gods, elves, and goodness knows what else. All, naturally, co-existing under the watchful - and vengeful - eyes of the Dragon Lord Ketz-Alkwat, who is perhaps best known for his balls and/or flaming pecker.

It was at once both undeniably beautiful and deeply terrorizing.

Or those facts will be oh so clear to readers after this book, as one or the other is mentioned around 60 times give or take a testicle. OK, though we're not physically as close to him, sorry, Him as we used to be - or his own LIA (like the CIA but with a KGB vibe … and naturally loyal to an all-powerful, self-absorbed dragon… hm, maybe they're just Republicans?) - but his presence is still very much felt throughout the lands and this story. And you know the "guy" I'm talking about anyway: he's a flying hundred-foot-long sorcerous fire-breathing dragon and he and his fellow dragons have been ruling the Seven Realms for more than six thousand years since they arrived here from Hell. Just trust me on this and think good thoughts!

I’m sure you, of all people, must have heard that curiosity kills the cat.

Now that is not to say that Bennie aka Bennie Boy aka big daddy is any less of an interesting character, especially as he just can't keep his hands off of exotic magical artifacts. And what with his trusted sidekick (?) Dwayne aka the D-Man! ("He helps me because he’s my friend. And because he’s insane.") and his lovely wife Salamander "Sal" Buckler, a riverbank sprite, the "like crazy man" flow of interesting characters, species, and other life(?)forms hasn't slowed down at all. In fact it is this book that made me realize that Lumsden has now a leading character - also referred to as being a "crazy sack of cats" based on a fraction of his skills (need to make a bear poop in the woods? Yep, Shade's your guy!) - with significantly more mobility, namely, he's not stuck pounding the pavement to look for whatever it is he needs to find or, um, borrow. Permanently in most cases. No, we get to enjoy now a leading man who can almost drown in various bodies of water several times, suffer greatly on long hikes through all kinds of terrain, or even risk the lives of several of his cats scaling what can only be called a giant sequoia. Um, because that's what it was (I just double-checked there, sorry, memory like a leaky septic tank…).

Twelve individual cat minds were overwhelmed with panic.

That is then one of the parts of "Shade #2" that was for me very much the most interesting - along with the usual truckload or five of snark and excellent but often friendly insults (two I've noted for daily usage include "you puffed-up ferret" and "you worthless bag of quivering chickenshit" which I found to be well on target!). You could think of it as a book about getting away from it all … except a lot of the same ol' shitty shenanigans go down in this Twin Peaksian small town of Cullumah as the do in the YC! Add to that getting to meet not one but two new were-critters plus the Natomas aka the Mudfish Men - oops, I mean, brave and mighty "river lions". Plus, when we get to combine not only the cornucopia of spirits that have involved themselves with Shade so far but even more beings including even at one point I suspect "The Lord Of That Small Pebble Over There Next to the Boulder That Is Shaped Vaguely Like Indiana", then again, it makes for fun times galore! This is, needless to say but I will anyway, a vibrant and insanely complex world. And I love the absolute crapola out of it!

Is this every teenaged boy’s wet dream, or what?

Now yes, naturally, the author has created a plot that I couldn't even squonk out the barest hint of knowing what was coming next. But the twists and turns that rival the length of anyone's small intestine through that we have grown so accustomed to are magnificent. And that's including over an even 10 tomes of all page counts, subjects, all of which more remain just as crazy as crazy can be, you dig? I mean, I could run through influences from a plethora - and yes, I always count them! - of genres and other ways of classifying your favorite reads and still make an argument that these books fit in somewhere, somehow. Bottom-line is that they are very entertaining, very well-executed, and very frustrating simply because I want the next one in my hands NOW! So you have the full poop from me, all I can say now is you need to beat some serious feet and get in on these prontissimo! Before you get caught with your pants down! I mean, "you never know what you might land in."

Why didn’t you just walk… the fuck… away?

P.S. Holy shit, that was exhausting. Did I miss anything? But seriously: when is the turd book coming out?

[Patrick Chadd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Diving headfirst into another arc in the world of Tolanica is as sweet as Christmas morning. I tried to pace myself, savoring each page instead of devouring it in one sitting—but I failed gloriously. I finished far too quickly, and like Christmas night, closing the book brought that bittersweet mix of satisfaction and sadness that comes when a wonderful journey ends.

The journey itself was fantastic—venturing deeper into the wilds of Tolanica and beyond, encountering fantastic creatures both great and small, with twists, turns, and brilliant moments at every step. I already can’t wait to see what emerges from Douglas Lumsden’s imagination next… I just hope it’s soon!

[Ann-Catherine Morner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Science tripped me up...

I was so sure about what the coprolites would be used for. In fact, I assumed...
This is not your usual Urban Fantasy. Not really any Fantasy at all.
Read this as legend/mythology. Not the lazy Olympians. Not the wimpy Sidhe. Something earthier, something with a bit of meat and feeling. Try the Völsunga saga. Or Väinämöinen.

[Juris L Purins · Rating 5 out of 5]

a step in a new series

More South Western in mythology than the first.
Will happily buy and read the next one
This one seemed a stepping stone