Book Review: Tombyards & Butterflies by Orlando A Sanchez

An emissary from the Dark Council has just materialized in the office of the Montague & Strong Detective Agency, and makes Simon Strong an offer he can’t refuse. Charon is missing. The legendary ferryman responsible for transporting sorcerer souls across the river Styx hasn’t been seen in days. And with each passing hour, those unable to cross the river are left to walk among the living, tilting the world further out of balance.

Meet Simon Strong, an immortal, who is also the best private detective in New York City. Together with his surly partner-Tristan Montague, a mage of indeterminate age, they must find the Ferryman and get him back to work  before another Supernatural War ravages the earth, destroys humanity, and Simon’s local coffee shop. Time is running out. His landlord wants the rent and Karma with a capital K is paying him a visit, and she can be a real…

Join the Montague & Strong Detective Agency and help them locate Charon, so he can restore balance to the universe, put the dead sorcerers to rest, and maybe solve the age old conundrum-coffee or tea?

My Review:
It was the gorgeous covers for this series that first caught my attention and I liked the sound of the blurb so I snagged the first one. I was pleased to find it an enjoyable read.

Simon is a human who became immortal after being cursed, and is always wondering where the next job is coming from to pay the rent. He runs a paranormal detective agency with his mage partner Tristan Montague and now they have been tasked by Karma, who is indeed a bitch,  with discovering why Charon the ferryman has vanished and is no longer taking souls across the river. People in high places are upset about the situation and want it resolved as it could lead to a supernatural war, especially when the God Chaos is taking advantage of the situation. If that wasn't bad enough, Michiko, a high ranking vampire, asks Simon to find and protect a vampire shunned by her clan before they find and kill her. Failure is not an option.

Simon is the main character for the plot and he was a decent character, if a bit of an idiot some of the time. He can be a bit of a smart ass at times when talking to people with more power than him, leading to tricky situations with Karma and Hades. I actually liked Monty better. He was the calming influence in the partnership, and being a mage, there were scenes of interesting magic from him that I enjoyed. They did work well as a partnership though so I'm not going to complain about Simon's antics too much! The side characters are interesting too. Michiko is a scary vampire who may have a crush on Simon which is a somewhat frightening thought when she can crush him like an insect if she wants to. Simon seems to be surrounded by scary women as Karma is every bit as dangerous to cross and gets annoyed with his smart arse attitude, his landlady Olga who isn't happy when she doesn't get her rent.  I liked that the women were strong and fearsome characters rather than just damsels in distress.

There is also Lt Angel Ramirez, in charge of the police force that deals with the supernatural, who needs help dealing the war brewing in his city. I very much liked his character. I liked Andre, the doorman at Simon's apartment, who we see a few times. I hope to see more of him in future books. I liked the interactions with Hades, who is a fun character. It is Hades that gives our heroes a gift in the form of a hellhound puppy called Peaches, who is just so adorable! The appearances of Jimmy the Cleaver, a bear shifter who owns a butcher shop, were funny and he needs to feature in later books too! I also liked Roxanne, who may be a potential love interest for future books.

There is a good mix of humour and action through the book, which is what I enjoy in my urban fantasy. There are strong action scenes every time Chaos turns up to cause trouble and frequent vampire attacks on the vampire that Simon is trying to protect for Michiko. There is a nice use of magic as well as you would expect with Gods and mages as characters. There is a wide range of settings in the book with action switching between blood banks, hospital, police buildings and street battles, and the fast remains pretty fast too. There was always something happening that was interesting. My only niggle was Simon could be annoying rather than funny at times, but everything else was really enjoyable. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series which I already own.

Read August 2018.
4 stars.