I received an ebook copy of this book from the author in exchange for a review.

That being said, this was a great continuation as the third novel in the Occult Crimes Unit series by J. Gustainis, and I find myself wanting more. The world he has created filled with supernaturals of many types, and how it runs seemingly parallel to ours is amazing. I always picture Det. Markowski as a 'Sam Spade' type, with so much dry wit and sarcasm, I find myself chuckling quite a bit throughout the story. If you like urban fantasy and crime stories, you will love this series! I hope to see more in the future!! ( )

3.5/5 stars. With every book in this series the stakes rise. Not in the old joke about D&D way where suddenly everyone in your group is a god, no, because Stan Markowski is still just Stan, a human cop in a supernatural world. But in the way where the stakes have to do with Stan and his beliefs and actions.

With help from his vampire partner Karl, official department witch Rachel, and with the support of his daughter and department, Stan uncovers a conspiracy that cause him to make a very difficult choice.

[As an aside, in this book Stan meets a tattooed woman who speaks her mind and he thinks she's not the usual representative of a Seven Sisters college. Oh, Stan, how wrong you are.]

(Provided by publisher) ( )

A no nonsense cop mystery with a little paranormal thrown in. No romance at all, just straight mystery and action. ( )

In Scranton, USA, fangsters are killing each other, Stephen King is a “true-crime writer,” and not selling blood in a bar doesn’t mean you're prejudiced against “supes”; it might just be “some kind of religious thing.” Still, the undead daughter will warm her cup in the microwave while Dad eats breakfast before joining the night shift at the precinct.

You could start this series anywhere and still get hooked. Backstory is minimal and informative, told in the laconic, self-deprecating voice of a wonderful protagonist, Stan Markowski. And the front story’s full of twists and turns as terrorism raises its ugly head in a small town, perfection proves hard to attain, and unknown assailants are sometimes thwarted by equally unknown assistants, while blood flows in the streets.

Dark times forge dark alliances, and create strange challenges. But the solutions flow with a convincing paranormal logic. The grisly dark is lightened with strings of puns. The humor is pleasingly noir. And the author continues to do for Scranton what Jim Butcher’s done for Chicago and Kat Richardson for Seattle. It’s a great series!

Disclosure: I was given a free ecopy and I offer my honest review. ( )

This is the third book in the Occult Crimes Unit Series, and it is definitely my favorite so far. Once again Scranton is up to its eyeballs in supernatural crime and intrigue. Up until now, the only supernatural creatures who were affected by drugs were goblins, who can get hooked on meth. Now there is a new drug in Stan Markowski's beloved town, and it seems to affect all supes. Typical to these books, there are a few other problems in Scranton -- namely an apparent war between vampire mafia factions and the battle for a new head of the supe community. Stan and his vampire partner Karl Renfer think there might be a link to the Patriot Party, a human supremacist group, but there are a lot of loose threads that would need to be tied together to prove anything. Added to the mysteries is the fact that an unknown entity saved Stan from getting killed in some very touchy situations not once, but twice. No one knows who it is, or why he or she is helping Stan.

As expected there is a lot of action and violence. The relationship between Stan and his vampire daughter Christine has developed nicely over the course of the three books. I frankly don't know if I like Stan; he's done a number of questionable things in the books that might make the average person pause. What I do like is that he is flawed, and does choose to sometimes do things that many people would not do, in the name of what he thinks is right. The dialog continues to feel real to me, as one might expect cops to interact with each other. The ending of this book is great. There was a twist I was definitely not expecting.

I still feel like the author sometimes tends to over explain, or excessively re-explain, certain things but it didn't detract from the story. I recommend this book highly; it could be read as a stand alone, but I do think you'd get the most out of it if you've read the other two first.

This book was received free with the request for an honest review. ( )