Publisher:
Pride Publishing
Author: Angel Martinez
Cover
Artist: Emmy Ellis
Length: 30,000 words
Format: ebook
Release
Date: pre-order 7/5/16, Pride store
release 7/19/16, General release 8/16/16
Pairing:
M/M
Price: $4.50
Blurb:
Kyle
Monroe’s encounter with a strange gelatinous creature in an alley leaves him
scarred and forever changed, revealing odd abilities he wishes he didn’t have
and earning him reassignment to a precinct where all the cops have defective
paranormal abilities.
Just as he’s starting to adjust to his fellow misfit squad mates,
Kyle’s new partner arrives. Tall, physically perfect, reserved, and claiming he
has no broken psychic talents, Vikash Soren irritates Kyle in every way. But as
much as he’d like to hate Vikash, Kyle finds himself oddly drawn to him, their
non-abilities meshing in unexpected ways. If they can learn to work together,
they might be able to stop the mysterious killer who has been leaving mutilated
bodies along the banks of the Schuylkill.
Series Info:
Offbeat
Crimes:
Every
region has them, but no police department talks about them—the weird crimes,
the encounters with creatures out of nightmares. The 77th Precincts
exist in certain cities to handle paranormal crime and containment, usually
staffed with experienced officers exhibiting psychic abilities.
In
Philadelphia, through an odd mix of budget issues and circumstance, the 77th
is manned entirely by officers with bizarre or severely limited psychic
talents. The firestarter who can’t get a spark when it’s humid. The vampire who
can’t drink whole blood. These are the stories of the misfits, the outcasts
from even the strangeness of the paranormal community. Call them freaks, but
they’re police officers first, serving and protecting, even if their methods
aren’t always normal procedure.
Excerpt:
Kyle
sat up straighter, shifting to see between the heads in front of him. Soren
looked like a poster boy for the model police officer, tall and straight,
uniform crisp and sharp. He stood at parade rest beside the lieutenant
impassively surveying his new colleagues. A little knot of resentment lodged in
Kyle’s stomach. At his own introduction to the Seventy-seventh, he’d been
nervous and fidgety, freaked out by the collection of…freaks. How can he be so calm?
“Officer
Soren transferred from the Harrisburg PD—”
“Don’t
they have enough freaky shit of their own up there?” Wolf called out in his
rasping growl.
“—since
Harrisburg is in our jurisdiction,” she continued with a quelling glance.
“He’ll start out partnered with Monroe.”
“What
does he do, ma’am? That it’s safe to put him with Kirby, er, Kyle?” Shira
Lourdes asked as she flicked nervous glances across the room at Kyle. An empty
chair slid away from her and fell over. Her partner, Greg Santos, shook his
head and righted the unfortunate piece of furniture.
“Officer
Soren’s abilities are his business, which he may or may not choose to share if
you ask. And don’t bully him about it either, any of you.” Lieutenant Dunfee
swept the room again, pinning each of her officers with her needle-laser gaze
like captive butterflies. “Monroe, my office after briefing. Info on your
current case.”
She
dismissed them, stalking from the room with thunderclouds in her eyes. Kyle
found himself approaching the new guy and trying his best not to be awkward.
Did he offer to shake hands? Was it safe? Would the guy flinch like so many
people did at the sight of Kyle’s scarred hands? Soren was even taller up
close, six-foot-three of lean inscrutability, his blue eyes startlingly bright
against smoky bronze skin.
“Um,
hi, I’m Kyle Monroe.” Kyle fidgeted when Soren didn’t offer his hand either.
“You’re with me, I guess. I’ll show you our spot in the squad room.”
Soren
followed him silently and Kyle was starting to wonder if he was like Krisk in
the not-speaking department until he finally spoke in a smooth, soft baritone,
making Kyle startle and miss a step. “Why do they call you Kirby?”
“You’d
hear it sooner or later, I guess.” Kyle shrugged. “It’s this thing I do,
absorbing other people’s talents temporarily. If they’re close to me. Or touch
me. Like Kirby, the little pink dude in the video game.”
“Ah.”
Just that? Soren didn’t edge away, or change
expression at all. Was he made of stone? “It’s a thing. Everyone here has a
thing.”
After
a few more steps, Soren asked, “Always?”
“What…oh,
was I always like this? Who knows? I mean, maybe I’ve picked up stray thoughts
or something, but no. It’s pretty recent. Knowing that I do this.”
Kyle
took a wide arc around Vance as he entered the squad room, pointing to the
double desk in the far corner, well removed from everyone else. “That’s ours.
Coffee’s over there, but you might not want that coffee. Let me grab my file
and we’ll go see the lieutenant.”
“So
what’s your story, Soren?” Vance called across the squad room. “What flies your
freak flag?”
“Yeah,
what do you do?” Jeff Gatling stopped ’porting his banana from one corner of
his desk to the other.
“I
don’t really do anything,” Soren answered as he hefted the empty coffee pot.
“Guess I’ll make fresh since I’m the new guy.”
He
opened the top to remove the filter and every human voice in the squad room
yelled out, “No!”
Most
people would have startled, maybe dropped the carafe. Soren just blinked at the
roomful of people gesturing wildly. He took the filter out and emptied it over
the trashcan. “Why not?”
“You
don’t want to do that.” Kyle stayed by his desk, a nice safe distance from the
coffee station. “That’s Larry’s job.”
“Larry’s
not keeping up then.”
The
container of sweetener packets began to rattle. It shivered across the counter
and leaped to a messy end, ceramic shards skittering across the floor. The desk
that Krisk and Wolf shared rose from the floor several inches and slammed back
down. Wolf fled with a squeaking yelp just before the desk flipped on its side.
Soren
glanced toward Kyle. “Larry’s not a cop, is he?”
“He
is…he was! A dead cop. Larry’s a ghost. He gets ticked if anyone else makes the
coffee. Put the stuff back, please!”
“Larry?”
Soren raised his voice but to all appearances remained completely unruffled.
“I’m new here. I’m very sorry I invaded your jurisdiction. See? I’m putting the
carafe back. Closing the top. Are we good, Larry?”
A
breeze ruffled through a stack of papers, but no further mayhem ensued. The
carafe slid from its pad on the coffeemaker and floated to the water cooler
where Larry, who never manifested in a visible form, whistled tunelessly while
he filled the carafe.
From
his dim corner of the room, Carrington said in his dry, genteel way, “Welcome
to the Island of Misfit Freaks.”
Buy Links:
4.5 out of 5 stars
Lime Gelatin and Other Monsters is the first book in the Offbeat Crimes series by Angel Martinez. As a first book for a paranormal series it hits all the right notes for this reader!
Kyle is a bit of an outcast even among the other misfit officers in his precinct. Since he's able to absorb anyone's powers when they are too close to him. He doesn't have a partner and his powers makes it almost impossible to fit in with the rest of his squad. Then his boss springs a new partner on him in the form of Vikash Soren. Vikash is ultra laid-back and a bit of a mystery to his new partner. Even better though, Kyle doesn't seem to absorb Vikash's powers. This is about par for their precinct, which happens to be a bit of a hodge-podge of misfits with weird or quirky powers and they handle the misfit paranormal cases.
This first book introduces the 77th precinct, the members of the squad and does a really fantastic job of world building. And if any of you have read my other reviews I'm huge on world building with paranormal, fantasy, and sci-fi based books. Of course my other big grab in a story is the characters. I absolutely loved Kyle, Vikash, and even Mr. Leather Jacket. The non-human characters had literally just as much thought and creativity behind them as the humanoid characters did throughout the entire story.
Of course the story focuses on Kyle and Vikash who are assigned as work partners but evolve into more than just co-workers. The dynamics between these two characters were spot-on. I liked the give and take in their verbal sparring. The development of their partnership from wary strangers to trusting each other to have the other's back when necessary. Kyle and Vikash work well together as both professional partners and as something more outside of their job.
I have to admit the author had me the moment Kyle uncovered Vikash's tattoo of Menolly's Fire Lizards. Vikash's comment a while later of which color Fire Lizard would have imprinted with Kyle had me cheering them on as a hopeful permanent couple. As a long time fan of Anne McCaffrey's Pern series that was just the icing on the cake to a very well done story.
I highly recommend this re-released gem of a story to anyone that loves a little bit of laughter, a lot of paranormal, and a well written story. This is a grab it when you see it kind of read that you won't want to put down until you've finished it. I can't wait to read the follow-up book in the series when it's also re-released later in September.
Author Bio:
Published since 2006, Angel's cynical heart cloaks a desperate romantic. You'll find drama and humor given equal weight in her writing and don't expect sad endings. Life is sad enough.
She currently lives in Delaware in a drinking town with a college problem and writes Science Fiction and Fantasy centered around gay heroes.
Author Links:
Website:
angelmartinezauthor.weebly.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/amartinez2
Twitter: @AngelMartinezrr
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/angelwritesmm
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