UK Publishing Date: 29 Sept 2015. 563 pages.
This is an anthology of paranormal stories that veer to the darker end of the spectrum. I normally tend to steer clear of the short story genre but when I saw that Rachel Caine had the lead story in here I decided to jump straight in.
Marion, Missing is a great story. Valentine is a detective. He’s offered a kidnapping case that is likely to get him killed but his partner won’t let him turn it down. And since he blames himself for his partners death and she is a ghost there really is no choice. This is one of the darker stories in the book and Valentine is a great character. I’d love to read a full length book about these people.
Femme Fatale is a vampire tale that doesn’t really tick all the boxes for me. Savannah just seems to be a bit too hackneyed and I afraid that I found myself speed reading through this one. Really unusual for me as I love vampire stories.
Dance With The Devil had a fairly interesting take on the selling your soul to the devil scenario. Kathleen and Jake were good characters and it was a good read.
The Consort was one of the stories that failed to connect with me at all and I’ve read a lot of Fae stories. Guessing I’d have enjoyed it more if I’d read the other stories written in that Universe. It felt like it would be an advantage to have more of an idea of how that world worked before you launched into the short story.
Heart’s Blood is a very dark retelling of the traditional story of The Goose Girl. It doesn’t do a great deal to change the way you think about that kind of story but it was a fairly easy read.
The Djinn in the Mirror is another retelling of a fairy-tale with a Djinn instead of a fairy godmother! It was dark but fun and a good way to finish off the book.
For me this was worth reading just for the Rachel Caine story but I’m now a bit more curious about some of the other authors and I’ll have to seek out some full length books by them as well. At the time of writing this is just 99p on Kindle so its a great chance to read a variety of authors for the price of a chocolate bar.
Supplied by Net Galley and the Publisher in exchange for an honest review.
You can get the book here: Dark Secrets: A Paranormal Noir Anthology
Categories: 4 Stars Book Review
angelnet69
Prolific reader, enthusiastic theatre and movie-goer and ex-Olivier Awards judge who spent twenty years working in the music industry in London. Sharing my house with a gorgeous cockapoo called Harry who has taken over completely.
I love sharing my favourite books with friends - nearly always spoiler-free as I hate reading a synopsis of the whole book in other reviews.
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