When other people’s weird is your normal, what do you do when your life gets weird?For Jane Butterworth the paranormal is just a day job. She works at the Blue Moon Investigation Agency, a firm that specialises in cases that no one else will take, cases that start at strange and unexplainable and tier rapidly south from there. Her boss is away dealing with a Yeti in France, but the enquiries keep … France, but the enquiries keep coming so when Chief Inspector Quinn of the local police wants to hire the firm as special consultants, Jane signs them up and takes it on herself.
But a swamp monster? Really?
Bodies of dead cops have been showing up in nearby Biddenden Lake, the site of an unexplained death three years ago. Is there a link between that death and these? The whole area is steeped in ancient history, ghost stories are two-a-penny here but is she really cut out to be a detective?
Time to put her big girl pants on.
Crossdressing isn’t always glamourous.
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Tempest and Amanda are still in France working on the Yeti case, so when a police call comes in about an ogre under a bridge in a nearby park, Jane knows exactly what to do. She rushes to the scene with bacon sandwich in hand and promises of cake, because Arthur, the neighborhood eccentric, is once again entertaining himself by scaring the wits out of park visitors, and she has to get to him ahead of the coppers to prevent his arrest.
The next morning, however, Jane is stunned to answer a call from PC Jan Van Doorn on behalf of Detective Inspector Quinn, Amanda’s nemesis, seeking help with the Swamp Monster murders. They began three years earlier when a man drowned in Biddenden Lake — the same park Arthur patrols — while camping with his girlfriend, who was considered the prime suspect in his death, but charges were eventually dismissed for lack of evidence. However, two bodies have recently popped up, both officers involved in the original case, and Quinn is at his wit’s end. “What do I want from Tempest Michaels?” he asks Jane. “He specializes in weird. This is weird.”
The attractive Van Doorn is appointed police liaison for the case, and Jane looks forward to working the case with him. What she doesn’t anticipate, though, is her boyfriend Simon’s petty jealousy about her career replacing him as the center of her attention. When she leaves him in bed on Saturday morning to work on the Swamp Monster case, she meets a harried young woman haunted by what she thinks is a waking dream: an older man singing “Mr. Sandman” from a chair near her bed. Once again, Jane accepts the case, confident in her ability to handle both in the absence of Temple and Amanda.
Like the police, Jane finds herself at loose ends with the Swamp Monster case — the girlfriend, Jennifer Lasseter, offers no new insight, and nothing other than their profession and the case linked the two recent victims. Surprisingly, though, in steps Arthur, in possession of unanticipated assets, to help his favorite detective link seemingly unrelated incidents.
But who engineered that chilling vinyl delivery to Blue Moon headquarters?
From a vampire-wannabe to superb solo sleuther, Jane Butterworth has become a force to be reckoned with, as Steve Higgs delivers another spine-tingling adventure from Blue Moon Investigations.
Steve Higgs is one of my favorite authors. I’ve read each of his series but i think this one with Tempest and Blue Moon Investigations is my favorite. In this book, Jane is the star, and I love how Steve has developed this character, first introducing us to her in a much earlier book and bringing her to this point of doing her own investigations and doing a damn fine job of it. I’ve got unanswered questions and can’t wait for the next one to come out. Fortunately for his fans, Steve Higgs pumps them out pretty quickly, minimizing wait and suspense time.
This is the first in this series that I have read, although I have read several other books by Steve Higgs. So, what did I think of it, well it was very amusing, quite exciting in places, and has some very original and quirky characters.
I really like that the story revolves around investigating apparently supernatural occurrences, and I also like that the explanations for these occurrences are original and clever.
The main character Jane/James is very well written and quite believable in his/her quest to define his/her sexuality, and the scrapes and awkward situations this results in.
If you like humorous adventure stories with a supernatural twist (or is there?) then this book is definitely worth reading.
I received an advance copy from the author, but have voluntarily written this honest review.
I’ve read several of the Blue Moon books but this is the first with Jane as the lead. I enjoyed it a lot and look forward to more. She’s clever and dedicated and asks herself a lot of WWTD (what would Temest do?) questions to keep on track. There’s a lot of humor and a few sad spots, and the end will surprise you.
I received an advance copy from the author and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.