I read and thoroughly enjoyed the first book in this quirky series – see my review of Under Ordshaw. Now the third book is shortly coming out, and I’m part of the tour tomorrow, I wanted to catch up before The Violent Fae is released.
BLURB: Waking on an unfamiliar floor, Pax is faced with two hard truths. A murderous government agency wants her dead – and monsters really do exist. What’s more, her body’s going haywire, which she desperately hopes isn’t a side-effect of her encounters in the city’s tunnels. To survive, and protect 
Ordshaw, she’s got to expose who, or what, is behind the chaos – and she can’t do it alone. But with only the trigger-happy Fae to turn to, Pax’s allies might kill her before her enemies do…
My firm advice would be to get hold of Under Ordshaw before picking this one up, as Williams tips us straight into the middle of the action and while that keeps the pace going, you’ll be floundering if you don’t know who is doing what to whom. While this is urban fantasy, as it is about fabulous creatures lurking within the thickets of a large fictitious city somewhere in the UK, it has quite a different feel to the general run of UF books.
Williams has managed to create a cast of characters flailing around in the face of a host of paranormal events – and I do enjoy the fact that while the authorities do know about it, they are in various stages of denial about what is going on. Meanwhile Officialdom’s instinct is to cover up anything nasty that surfaces. This is all complicated by the simmering hostility between humanity and the fae. Forget Tinkerbell, these six-inch-high flying creatures are short-fused, generally hate humanity and armed with firepower capable of killing a human, despite their size.
A handful of folks have become involved, including Pax, and are grimly aware that something far more disturbing is going on than the comforting myth that the entity lurking below the city is mostly of benefit to the humans living on top of it. But they are having a major problem getting anyone to listen.
I liked the character development as we got to see more of Pax, and particularly her foul-mouthed tough companion, Letty. I also enjoyed watching Barton’s wife Holly in action – her fury at finding that her husband has been leading a double life all these years was both convincing and riveting. There are a couple of enjoyable set-piece battles that also had me turning the pages later at night than I should have, to discover what happened next. I look forward to discovering more about what exactly is going on under Ordshaw, in The Violent Fae at the beginning of November.
Recommended for fans of urban fantasy with a twist.
8/10
Brainfluff 