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Review: Best Left in the Shadows

Best left in the shadows

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Thank you to Netgalley and the authors for a chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Publish date: 15th November 2015

Title: Best Left in the Shadows
Authors: Mark Gelineau and Joe King
Pubisher: Gelineau and King
Book: #3 of An Echo of the Ascended and #1 of Best Left in the Shadows
Genre: fantasy/mystery
Found: Netgalley
Rating: 4 Voodoos

Best Left in the Shadows is the first novella of the fantasy crime drama series of the same name. It is a murder mystery, told in a fast-paced, 90-minutes. Reviewers compare it to TV shows Castle or Bones. It is recommended for readers who enjoy fantasy, noir, crime stories, mystery, and good old-fashioned banter.

A Highside girl. Beaten. Murdered. Her body found on a Lowside dock. A magistrate comes looking for answers. For justice.

Alys trades and sells secrets among the gangs and factions of Lowside. She is a daughter of the underworld. Bold. Cunning. Free. When an old lover asks for help, she agrees. For a price.

Together, they travel into the dark heart of the underworld in search of a killer.

-Netgalley

My review of the first book of the An Echo of the Ascended series can be found HERE and the second, HERE. Ms4Tune’s review of Best Left in the Shadows can be found HERE - I never read them till I’ve written mine, in case I’m influenced!

This story was completely different to the other two! There was barely anything relating it to the previous books except that I know Alys went to the same orphanage as the others and the Razors from book 1 were mentioned. This was far more of a mystery based story and the least like a ‘fantasy’ story beyond it’s other-world setting. I think it’s quite clever how they’ve got a collection of vastly different stories all set within the same world. You probably won’t NEED to read them all to understand either. This one had more of a Victorian London feel to it where as the others felt a little more…middle ages perhaps. Castles and monsters and Knights and Legends. This one could suddenly sprout steampunk contraptions and I wouldn’t blink an eye.

This one reminded me of The Mind of the Phoenix by Jamie McLachlan. The whole opposite-sides-of-the-justice-system-but-working-together thing. Which is odd because Dax was nothing like Keenan! I did like Dax, I think I’d even say he’s even my favourite so far, though Ferran could be a close second. Why this is, well I think it’s perhaps to do with his parting shot to Alys. I do like a bit of sass. I also liked Alys and Dax together. There seemed more socialness in this book, but that might just be because all of the characters had history together, we were joining in in the middle, not tagging along for the start. The mystery was interesting but not gripping – but then this IS an introductory story. Just like with The Mind of the Phoenix what I enjoyed most was the relationship between the main characters. I find how people interact facinating and I’m a big fan of banter. And the rules, they are a changin’.

I can’t wait to see what the last book has in store for me! Will it be totally different again??

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