Book Review: Killing Rocks by Jaye Wells (Bloodhound Files)

FBI profiler Jace Valchek’s ticket home from the twisted parallel universe where she’s been called to duty hinges on the capture of serial killer Aristotle Stoker—and an alliance with a sorcerer known as Asher. The problem: Asher has joined forces with some of the most dangerous creatures Jace has ever encountered. The solution: There is none, without Asher’s help…

Jace’s goal seems simple enough—to get her man, like always. But just hours after she arrives in Vegas, she’s abducted…and she isn’t even sure who the real enemy is. Now Jace has to wonder if she’s the predator or the prey in a very dangerous game that could change not only her fate, but the world’s…Meanwhile, a serial killer is still on the loose. And time has already run out…

My Review: 
Jace just wants to capture Stoker and get a ticket back home but again Cassius seems to have another pressing case to distract her with but this one involves the only shaman who can send her back to the correct time and place he took her from. The team attempt to capture a group of most wanted at a secret meeting but it goes wrong and Jace finds herself trapped inside Vegas during a Golem revolt against the supernatural creatures who employ them. With only a few allies in the city Jace has to find out what is happening and stop it.

I really enjoyed the plot of this book. The plot unfolded quickly as Jace leads a time to watch a group of dangerous criminals at a meeting. There is a dangerousa arms dealer, a Golem from a Golem Rights group that want to gain their own power and not work for anyone else and the shaman that Jace badly needs to get back under government control if she ever wants to go back home. Cassius wants her team to capture this group but the interference of an Astonisher with revenge on her mind has her team thinking that she betrayed them to their targets, just as the criminals make it clear they know the team are there and attack. The next thing Jace knows, Golems are rebelling all over the city, vampires and werewolves are being killed and humans are being imprisoned 'for their own safety'.

The whole sneaking around Vegas to avoid the uprising bit is fun and I was delighted to see that The Quicksilver Kid was back in town and making a pest of himself as he tries to fight the spell that has everyone including Charlie under its spell. After I got used to her being in the story I grew to like the Astonisher who messed things up for Jace to get her own revenge on the shaman. Azura and Jace have to work with Cassius in the city to start getting a handle on things. It was disappointing to lose Charlie as a character so early in the book as his snarky relationship with Jace is a highlight of the books but with him under the spell we barely see him in the first half of the book which is a shame.

My niggle with this book was when it went into all the different worlds and then the book started to drag. The first intervention is when a Vegas hotel vanishes and a different building appears in its place. When Jace and Azura go inside they are forced to witness a full creation legend for something and it went on for pages. I found that dull. Then the pair go back to one of these changed hotels and go into another realm and witness a whole supernatural war in front of them. I just didn't find any of this interesting at all. We moved away from Jace working with Cassius and into all these myth re-enactments that just really didn't interest me in the slightest and I started skimming through them. It was like a very uninteresting mass info dump that really wasn't needed. I much prefered dealing with the Golem uprising as it was way more interesting.   

The other thing for me is that I just don't like the character of Tair at all as I much preferred Dr Pete and his extended family and animal shelter. Having him front and centre in the middle of all the myth creation stuff didn't exactly thrill me. I just wish he'd turn back to Dr Pete. I won't be amused if he and Jace become a couple. More Charlie and Cassius and Gretchen and much less Tair thank you.

I was reading this series for the Can You Read A Series In A Month and I admit that I came to a grinding halt with this book. I was starting to run out of time on the challenge anyway but some aspects of this book did sort of slow me right down and these myth parts made me reluctant to read on with the book. I really need the series to pick up again with book 4, back to the standard of the first book or I could struggle to get through the rest of the series.

Read November 2019
3 stars.