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Kilhaven Police #3
Shift Out of Luck
Disappearing werewolf teens. Killer clown sightings. Can this cop thwart a rising conspiracy before it sprouts fangs?
Officer Norman Green is the unluckiest cop in the Kilhaven Police Department. And not just because he’s a human in a city teeming with meth-addicted shapeshifters. With a leprechaun’s curse hanging over his head, he’s doing what he can to serve his community without dragging it down with him, but that becomes harder when fellow cursed officer Heather Valance returns from her clandestine vacation.
When a vampire detective joins the Fang 900s, it looks like Green’s luck has officially run out. And with more children disappearing from affluent werewolf families and a criminal magician who keeps pulling a vanishing act, this rookie could really use a little good fortune if he hopes to cut through the tangled web of lies, fangs, and fur. Especially when Valance has her eye on a new in-sector pet project…
Officer Norman Green is the unluckiest cop in the Kilhaven Police Department. And not just because he’s a human in a city teeming with meth-addicted shapeshifters. With a leprechaun’s curse hanging over his head, he’s doing what he can to serve his community without dragging it down with him, but that becomes harder when fellow cursed officer Heather Valance returns from her clandestine vacation.
When a vampire detective joins the Fang 900s, it looks like Green’s luck has officially run out. And with more children disappearing from affluent werewolf families and a criminal magician who keeps pulling a vanishing act, this rookie could really use a little good fortune if he hopes to cut through the tangled web of lies, fangs, and fur. Especially when Valance has her eye on a new in-sector pet project…
- GenresUrban Fantasy
265 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 16, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 19, 2021
Back again with the 3rd installment of the Killhaven Police series!
Cursed with bad luck, Officer Norman Green and Heather Valence are tasked with surviving a single shift without risking stepping in dog droppings, or—on their bad days—risking their lives and the lives of the officers around them. And if that’s not enough, there is definitely something illegal at play as children begin disappearing. Valence is determined to get to the bottom of the string of disappearances, and Green has to decide if he’s going to play by the book or join Valence’s rogue quest… and hope his luck doesn’t completely run out.
You don’t keep reading this series if Bloodworth and Taylor’s dark humor doesn’t fill your soul with something you didn’t even know you were missing. And while Green’s luck has been compromised, your luck is redoubled because this is possibly the most exciting and humorous installment yet.
Book 1 was more or less an introduction to Green and his world of paranormal creatures. Book 2 was a bridge with enough of a hook to keep me reading. Book 3 is the fulfilled promise. Shift really hits the fan in this novel, and the ending payoff is the explosive action sequence I’ve been craving since the first installment.
These books are short and quick reads and are perfect palette cleansers between longer works. And even though I’m more likely to be found reading an epic fantasy novel, I find myself eager to recommend this series to readers who are looking for something that’s easier to digest.
Shift Out of Luck feels like a conclusion, but at the same time, a beginning in a world that continues to be fleshed out with layers of mysteries and dark plots. There’s more to be uncovered, and I’m not ready to leave this world. Hopefully, Bloodworth and Taylor feel similarly and keep the books coming until I get all the answers I need.
If you haven’t started this series yet and you love the idea of a supernatural police procedural that will make you laugh (followed quickly by the question: “whoa… is there something wrong with me?”) go pick up the first book, Shift Work, right now. No regrets.
*Full Disclosure — I work for the publisher, but I wasn't paid to review this book. While this is an honest review, I was involved in the production of the audiobook, but I make no profits from sales of this title.*
Cursed with bad luck, Officer Norman Green and Heather Valence are tasked with surviving a single shift without risking stepping in dog droppings, or—on their bad days—risking their lives and the lives of the officers around them. And if that’s not enough, there is definitely something illegal at play as children begin disappearing. Valence is determined to get to the bottom of the string of disappearances, and Green has to decide if he’s going to play by the book or join Valence’s rogue quest… and hope his luck doesn’t completely run out.
You don’t keep reading this series if Bloodworth and Taylor’s dark humor doesn’t fill your soul with something you didn’t even know you were missing. And while Green’s luck has been compromised, your luck is redoubled because this is possibly the most exciting and humorous installment yet.
Book 1 was more or less an introduction to Green and his world of paranormal creatures. Book 2 was a bridge with enough of a hook to keep me reading. Book 3 is the fulfilled promise. Shift really hits the fan in this novel, and the ending payoff is the explosive action sequence I’ve been craving since the first installment.
These books are short and quick reads and are perfect palette cleansers between longer works. And even though I’m more likely to be found reading an epic fantasy novel, I find myself eager to recommend this series to readers who are looking for something that’s easier to digest.
Shift Out of Luck feels like a conclusion, but at the same time, a beginning in a world that continues to be fleshed out with layers of mysteries and dark plots. There’s more to be uncovered, and I’m not ready to leave this world. Hopefully, Bloodworth and Taylor feel similarly and keep the books coming until I get all the answers I need.
If you haven’t started this series yet and you love the idea of a supernatural police procedural that will make you laugh (followed quickly by the question: “whoa… is there something wrong with me?”) go pick up the first book, Shift Work, right now. No regrets.
*Full Disclosure — I work for the publisher, but I wasn't paid to review this book. While this is an honest review, I was involved in the production of the audiobook, but I make no profits from sales of this title.*
February 6, 2022
This is the third book of the Kilhaven Police Series. It is a continuation of the second book - “Same Old Shift.” It picks up immediately after book two left off, so I’m writing almost identical reviews for both.
This book continues to focus on the development of Norman Green, the main character from Books one and two of the series. He is the sole human police officer in a town full of were-animals, shapeshifters, magicians, leprechauns, cherubs vampires, and other non-humans. Most of the rest of the Kilhaven Police Squad are were-wolves, or some other form of were-animal. In Kilhaven, humans are considered the weakest of all these, though not the worst of them.
The book is humorous, despite - or sometimes because of - its gooey and bloody crimes. Much of the other humor comes from the descriptions and general character of the various groups: The Leprechauns with their shileleighs and their curses of bad luck (which partially accounts for this book’s title) the babyish faces of the mean cherubs, the various types of shapeshifters, the evil, mocking Magicians, the Vampires (who are not that different from traditional vampires), the Were-animals, who are the most prevalent species in these books, and the ones who seem to be most tolerant of the human Norman, (though not always friendly towards him). Beneath the fast-moving plot and the comic aspects of the novel runs a commentary on racism, though in this fictional setting it’s disguised as “speciesism” (not a real word, but it fits), in which humans replace people of color - or any disparaged group - as those who are looked down upon, and/or discriminated against.
For a novel with so much humor, the plot is dark: young children are disappearing from a well-to-do neighborhood. Only a few members of the police force - primarily Norman, and were-wolves Heather Vance and Corporal Bannockburn - are willing to suspect vampires are the most likely group of kidnappers, while the top brass discounts their theories and attempts to bury any evidence relating to it. Although Norman spends a lot of his time interacting with other species in a variety of often humorous, sometimes dangerous police calls - which have nothing to do with missing were-children or vampires - the story always does come back to that ; by the end of this book, there is a resolution.
Otherwise, this book continues to tell the story of how Norman goes from being an inexperienced and often clueless human, working in a police force filled with different species, to a policeman who gradually becomes respected as just one of the members of the Kilhaven Police, despite (because of?) his humanness, quick thinking, loyalty and semi-reluctant bravery.
Similar to the first and second book in this series, this book has story, plot, humor, interesting and fun characters, and a lot of heart. A very entertaining read.
This book continues to focus on the development of Norman Green, the main character from Books one and two of the series. He is the sole human police officer in a town full of were-animals, shapeshifters, magicians, leprechauns, cherubs vampires, and other non-humans. Most of the rest of the Kilhaven Police Squad are were-wolves, or some other form of were-animal. In Kilhaven, humans are considered the weakest of all these, though not the worst of them.
The book is humorous, despite - or sometimes because of - its gooey and bloody crimes. Much of the other humor comes from the descriptions and general character of the various groups: The Leprechauns with their shileleighs and their curses of bad luck (which partially accounts for this book’s title) the babyish faces of the mean cherubs, the various types of shapeshifters, the evil, mocking Magicians, the Vampires (who are not that different from traditional vampires), the Were-animals, who are the most prevalent species in these books, and the ones who seem to be most tolerant of the human Norman, (though not always friendly towards him). Beneath the fast-moving plot and the comic aspects of the novel runs a commentary on racism, though in this fictional setting it’s disguised as “speciesism” (not a real word, but it fits), in which humans replace people of color - or any disparaged group - as those who are looked down upon, and/or discriminated against.
For a novel with so much humor, the plot is dark: young children are disappearing from a well-to-do neighborhood. Only a few members of the police force - primarily Norman, and were-wolves Heather Vance and Corporal Bannockburn - are willing to suspect vampires are the most likely group of kidnappers, while the top brass discounts their theories and attempts to bury any evidence relating to it. Although Norman spends a lot of his time interacting with other species in a variety of often humorous, sometimes dangerous police calls - which have nothing to do with missing were-children or vampires - the story always does come back to that ; by the end of this book, there is a resolution.
Otherwise, this book continues to tell the story of how Norman goes from being an inexperienced and often clueless human, working in a police force filled with different species, to a policeman who gradually becomes respected as just one of the members of the Kilhaven Police, despite (because of?) his humanness, quick thinking, loyalty and semi-reluctant bravery.
Similar to the first and second book in this series, this book has story, plot, humor, interesting and fun characters, and a lot of heart. A very entertaining read.
September 13, 2022
I love this series. The characters continue to develop at the same frantic pace as the brilliantly absurd cases they investigate.
Inter-personnel relationship complexities are further confused by the brilliant palette of varied species and there are laugh-out-loud moments in most chapters.
They keep improving the stories and I’m completely sold on the whole ridiculous get-up.
Inter-personnel relationship complexities are further confused by the brilliant palette of varied species and there are laugh-out-loud moments in most chapters.
They keep improving the stories and I’m completely sold on the whole ridiculous get-up.
July 17, 2020
Really good read
The best series with light hearted fun and great characters. Makes you want more. I can't wait for the followup.
The best series with light hearted fun and great characters. Makes you want more. I can't wait for the followup.
December 27, 2024
Exploding Shifters! Purple goo, deep conspiracy!
July 5, 2020
While “Brock Bloodworth” is a figure with something of a sketchy past, H. Claire Taylor’s husband is a police officer in Texas, so as far as police procedurals go, this one’s got some pretty good fact-checking. Well, maybe not fact-checking per se (the vampires, were-things and such are probably imaginary), but at least the procedure part is probably right.
This is the third story featuring Normal Green, the only pure human on the Kilhaven Police’s Fang 900 shift. In a way, he’s kind of like Judy Bunny from Zootopia: all he has to keep himself alive and serving-and-protecting in a world filled with paranormal predators is his heart and determination. After his initial training in book one with his werewolf FTO, Heather Valance, Green has hit the streets for real, chasing down meth-addled lycanthropes, breaking up leprechaun fights, and discovering that not everything in Kilhaven (and the rest of the world) is quite what the powers that be want people to think.
This is where we find him in Shift Out of Luck. The first two books hinted at something being not quite right between the vampires and the rest of the population. There is, at least on paper, a truce in place that keeps everything peaceful. But when Green, Valance, and others in the Fang 900s start to connect the dots between missing were-children and violent flare-ups in other parts of the world, it becomes clear that the established social orders aren’t just crumbling, they may have already collapsed.
Just as with the Jessica Christ series, these books aren’t for kids. There’re sex and violence and drug use and all the things you would expect from books with this sort of premise. Who they are for is anyone who likes detective stories and is up for a clever, paranormal twist on the genre. I tore through this one the day it came out and I can’t wait for book four.
This is the third story featuring Normal Green, the only pure human on the Kilhaven Police’s Fang 900 shift. In a way, he’s kind of like Judy Bunny from Zootopia: all he has to keep himself alive and serving-and-protecting in a world filled with paranormal predators is his heart and determination. After his initial training in book one with his werewolf FTO, Heather Valance, Green has hit the streets for real, chasing down meth-addled lycanthropes, breaking up leprechaun fights, and discovering that not everything in Kilhaven (and the rest of the world) is quite what the powers that be want people to think.
This is where we find him in Shift Out of Luck. The first two books hinted at something being not quite right between the vampires and the rest of the population. There is, at least on paper, a truce in place that keeps everything peaceful. But when Green, Valance, and others in the Fang 900s start to connect the dots between missing were-children and violent flare-ups in other parts of the world, it becomes clear that the established social orders aren’t just crumbling, they may have already collapsed.
Just as with the Jessica Christ series, these books aren’t for kids. There’re sex and violence and drug use and all the things you would expect from books with this sort of premise. Who they are for is anyone who likes detective stories and is up for a clever, paranormal twist on the genre. I tore through this one the day it came out and I can’t wait for book four.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews