It's a gritty noir short novella about a crime ring making unicorn snuff films, complete with the hard-drinking ex-cop (lady) narrator (whose ex-lover - also a lady - is somehow involved), the body of a young girl in a dumpster, and the mano-e-mano gotta-take-em-down-myself finale. That's how it was sold to me, and that's what it delivered. I find myself somewhat dissatisfied with that delivery, but a lot of that (I suspect) is me, not the book.

For starters, I don't read short spec fiction. I don't really read short fiction, full-stop, because if a story's worth engaging with, I want to engage with it fully and in detail and with all its context and complications. I kept seeing teasing glimpses of all that stuff around the edges of this story, and it frustrated me immensely to turn away from it. Especially given that all of this seemed to be driven by "what happened last time there was a unicorn", the lack of detailed exploration of what happened last time really annoyed me. I just feel like there's so much more that this could be, and so much more to explore within this story (and the larger world).

So while there's a lot that I like about this ruthless urban faery fantasy, I just can't take it above three stars. ( )

A fast paced, well written noir detective mystery with paranormal elements.

The sassy lead Miriam Aster is an ex-cop who is reluctantly called in to consult on cases which involve fey influence, such as a murdered child covered in fairy glitter. Be warned, however, this is no children's fairy tale.

I enjoyed this tale from Peter M Ball and the skilful way the paranormal elements were blended with noir ambience.

I look forward to reading others in the series. ( )