Book Reviews

Feral Dust Bunnies (Offbeat Crimes 4) by Angel Martinez at Pride Publishing

Genre Gay / Paranormal / Law Enforcement / Vampires / Psychic Powers / Interspecies / Erotic Romance / Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Reviewed by Serena Yates on 20-June-2017

Book Blurb

An orphaned kitten may be the only witness to romance and the impossible.


Officer Alex Wolf responds to a lot of ‘paranormal’ calls that aren’t. Exotic pet birds aren’t monsters and unusual dog breeds aren’t aliens. It’s a good thing he likes the Animal Control officers, but he both yearns for and dreads those calls where he runs into ACO Jason Shen. Jason’s scent is so delicious that Wolf has a difficult time humaning around him.

 

Animal Control calls take a disturbing turn, though, when Wolf and his lizard-man partner, Krisk, discover the impossibly mummified bodies of rats and an unfortunate mother cat. The rescue of the cat’s sole surviving kitten not only gives Wolf more time with Jason, which is both perplexing and wonderful, but also leads to dangerous discoveries. Something inconceivable stalks the city and its officers of the law. Wolf has to figure out what it is before it can attack and drain the life from the people and the kitten he loves.

 

Book Review

This fourth book set in Angel Martinez’s world of Philadelphia’s 77th Precinct with its paranormally defective members focuses on one of the more enigmatic team members, Alex Wolf. I also got to find out a lot more about Wolf’s detective partner, silent lizard-man Krisk, who communicates by text and the odd grunt here or there. This time the intrepid officers face mummified animals, a lonely kitten, and some truly dangerous discoveries. It’s all hands on deck as they have to figure out what’s stalking them before it is too late.

Alex Wolf, who goes by “Wolf” for short, has a somewhat murky past, lives with the woman who adopted him, and still has trouble behaving like a human at times. His interactions with his mother and her attempts to teach him human skills (like ironing his shirts) are hilarious. Wolf works well with the animal control officers, so he is the first to respond to their calls as mummified animal bodies turn up. It gives Wolf ample opportunity to spend time with Jason, one of the animal control officers involved. And as confused as Wolf is about his attraction to the human, he is reluctant to do anything about it. If he even knew what he was supposed to do!

Jason is delightfully unaware of the exact nature of the man he is visibly falling for. But he is not easily scared, and anyway, a man who likes an orphaned kitten enough to take her home can’t be a complete disaster, right? And when he finally asks Wolf out for lunch and finds out the truth, he barely blinks an eye. There are a couple of starts and stops to their romance as Jason battles the reality of their romance and Wolf bumbles along, but the surprising discoveries for both men keep coming and, in the end, they are definitely very hot together.

The main plot around the desiccated animals thickens as the danger grows – and I really can’t reveal much more than that without a huge spoiler. I will say that I loved the improbability of this story as much as that of previous volumes, and the various subplots around the other characters added a lot to my enjoyment as well. Kyle and Kash are back in a big way, and I hope they stay involved in future stories as much as they have been so far. They are such great guys!

If you like the crazy paranormal world of the 77th Precinct and can’t get enough of their amazing adventures, if you want to know how a wolf-man without the finer human graces and an animal control officer manage to figure out they belong together, and if you’re looking for a mystery that is a little darker than previous ones in this series but just as well-constructed, then you will probably like this novella. I definitely look forward to the next one!

 

 

 

 

DISCLAIMER: Books reviewed on this site were usually provided at no cost by the publisher or author. This book has been provided by Pride Publishing for the purpose of a review.

Additional Information

Format ebook
Length Novella, 115 pages/39510 words
Heat Level
Publication Date 20-June-2017
Price $2.99 ebook
Buy Link https://www.pride-publishing.com/book/feral-dust-bunnies