Author: Melissa F. Olson
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: N/A
Paperback, 283 pages
Publication:
October 30th 2012
by 47North
Buy the Book
Source: I bought it for myself.
|SUMMARY|
Scarlett Bernard knows
about personal space: step within ten feet of her, and any supernatural
spells or demonic forces are instantly defused--vampires and werewolves
become human again, and witches can't get out so much as a "hocus
pocus." This special skill makes her a null and very valuable to Los
Angeles's three most powerful magical communities, who utilize her
ability to scrub crime scenes clean of all traces of the paranormal to
keep humanity, and the LAPD, in the dark.
But one night Scarlett's late arrival to a grisly murder scene reveals her agenda and ends with LAPD's Jesse Cruz tracking her down to strike a deal: he'll keep quiet about the undead underworld if she helps solve the case. Their pact doesn't sit well with Dash, the city's chief bloodsucker, who fears his whole vampire empire is at stake. And when clues start to point to Scarlett, it'll take more than her unique powers to catch the real killer and clear her name.
But one night Scarlett's late arrival to a grisly murder scene reveals her agenda and ends with LAPD's Jesse Cruz tracking her down to strike a deal: he'll keep quiet about the undead underworld if she helps solve the case. Their pact doesn't sit well with Dash, the city's chief bloodsucker, who fears his whole vampire empire is at stake. And when clues start to point to Scarlett, it'll take more than her unique powers to catch the real killer and clear her name.
|REVIEW|
I’m not going to rehash the summary since its pretty
straight forward. I came across Dead Spots while browsing Amazon for new
books to read (the usual lol), and thought the summary sounded intriguing. The
only thing is that this is published under 47North, which is an imprint under
Amazon publishing…and I never tried any of their books before (ended up getting two more books under the children section lol!). Curious about the book, I went to the author’s
website and read the first chapter for free. It was a great first chapter;
sounded promising and definitely piqued my interest in which I immediately
order a copy! While this book has the
usual vampires, werewolves and witches,
Olson’s supernatural beings were form from an evolution concept having
to do with Darwin and how every branch had a ‘magical branch’ splitting to form
the three groups. Also our main heroine Scarlett is a null, able to cancel out
magic within a 10 feet radius give or take. This means werewolves/Vampires
become human again till they leave her vicinity and Witches can’t cast spells.
I haven’t seen many ‘nulls’ in books I’ve read except for the Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger
but then again Carriger’s series is steampunk and more on the lighter/humorous
side.
I really like
Scarlett, she is not perfect ,a little broken by blaming herself for her
parents death and what she does for a living but even after all that, she strive
to be better for the people around her. Although she’s not a kick-butt heroine
she’s still one tough chick, and does whatever she can to keep her friends
safe. There is also a love-triangle in this book between Eli, the second-in-command
to the alpha werewolf and Jesse, a human LAPD cop. I don’t usually like
love-triangle but this one didn’t bother me, I mean thankfully Scarlett is not
an angsty little teenager. The secondary
characters were also interesting, although not all of them were well-fleshed
out. I hope to see more of the group dynamics
in future books (PLEASE let there be more books!) since this book’s main problem focused on the
vampires , not the weres or witches.
The book alternate
back and forth between chapters from first pov and third pov, took me a little
while to get use to but once I got into the story, I hardly notice the changes.
Olson’s debut novel is a dime a dozen in an already saturated genre, and I hope
that this is a start to a new series.
Fans of urban fantasy will want to put this book on their wish-list; it
has wonderful world-building, great supporting characters, suspense, and a few
twists/surprises that I didn’t even see coming! Overall a well-written book (I
can’t believe this is a debut novel), and an entertaining story…I can’t wait
for more Scarlett and company. This is
among the best books I’ve read all year! I suggest checking out the free
chapter on the author’s site, found here http://www.melissaolson.net/dead-spots-chapter-1.html
and see if you like it as much as me…I hope you do! :D
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