
Walk softly, and carry a very big stick …
DI Adams fled London to escape bridge-dwelling monsters and magical toasties – a one-time experience she's in no hurry to repeat. She’s police, not some cryptid hunter.
Leeds has other plans, though.
Tasked with the seemingly mundane case of a missing necklace, Adams soon realises she’s stumbled into something inexplicable. The trinket is dangerous, and she’s the only one who recognises it for what it is – a weapon that could tear the north apart.
Juggling unhelpful colleagues, amnesiac witnesses, and problematic women of a certain age, Adams plunges into the treacherous, magic-soaked streets of Leeds. She may not have backup, but at least she has the invisible, caffeine-addicted dog by her side.
Plus a duck. And a very big stick.
She’s got this. She has to.
Because there’s no one else who can …
All Out of Leeds / Trouble Brewing in Harrogate, Kim M. Watt
I know, what on earth - bridge dwelling monsters, magical toasties, a caffeine-addicted dog, ducks, deadly brewers, superpowered DJs, raging florists, ALL OUT OF LEEDS (book 1) and TROUBLE BREWING IN HARROGATE (book 2), and this reader. Not a match made in heaven. But it's not always about personal taste, and somewhere there will be readers going ... oooo, who is writing this sort of right up my country lane style paranormal cosy fiction?
Kim M. Watt has a number of series along these lines, these being the first 2 books in the DI Adams set, which as at the date of this review has 3.5 entries in it. They are sort of police procedurals, with a hefty dose of overt humour and ... well magic. (Did I mention that the dog, in this case a black dog called Dandy is also invisible. It's not completely weird, Adams can see him).
Anyway, cosy fantasy, with a police procedural overlay, following on from 0.5 in the series, WHAT HAPPENED IN LONDON, to be honest I've no idea if you need to read that book first. If this is the sort of series that would appeal to you, then maybe yes. Not that I'm sure knowing who is who or why or how is going to be a dealbreaker for magical, cosy, fantasy with a police procedural overlay ...
If this sounds close to appealing, but not quite, then you never know - the Beaufort Scales Mysteries might work better. The first from that series has a blurb that includes the line:
Beaufort Scales, High Lord of the Cloverly dragons and survivor of the days of knights and dragon hunts, knows even better than Alice that the modern dragon only survives as long as no one knows they exist. But he also knows friends don’t let friends face murder inquiries alone. Beaufort fully intends to Get Involved.
More on one of those next up.