Book Review – Connor Grey series by Mark Del Franco (Part 1)

As I’ve been plugging away at the Tiger Saga series by Colleen Houck, I’ve also been reading this series on my NOOK. There are a total of six books but, this review is only on the first three because I have yet to read the last three and feel like I’ll forget too many things if I wait to do a review until I finish the series.

  

The three I’ve read so far include:

• Unshapely Things
• Unquiet Dreams
• Unfallen Dead

Here is a Goodreads synopsis of the first book in the series, Unshapely Things:

In the alleys of the decrepit Boston neighborhood known as the Weird, fairy prostitutes are turning up dead. The crime scenes show signs of residual magic, but the Guild, which polices the fey, has more “important” crimes to investigate and dumps the case on human law enforcement.

Boston police call in Connor Grey, a druid and former hotshot Guild investigator-whose magical abilities were crippled after a run-in with a radical environmentalist elf. As Connor battles red tape and his own shortcomings, he realizes that the murders are not random, but part of an ancient magical ritual. And if Connor can’t figure out the killer’s M.O., the culmination of the spell might just bring about a worldwide cataclysm.

My Rating: 4/5 stars for each book

This series takes place in modern-day Boston, but with a twist: the fey and humans live side-by-side. Due to an event over one-hundred years ago known as Convergence, the fey were separated from their original world, Faerie, and ended up in our own. I really like the world Franco has created. Through his enjoyable writing style he describes this world with amazing detail and you really feel like you’ve been sucked into it. The series is mainly focused in the Weird, the neighborhood where the main character, Connor Grey, resides. The fey, who think they’re better than humans, don’t get along all that well with non-fey folk, so the Weird is a place where both humans and the fey live because the individuals who live there really don’t give a crap if you’re fey or not.

As mentioned in the synopsis, Connor is a druid and former Guild member who has now lost most of his abilities. The first book takes place about one or two years after that, so readers are introduced to the ‘new’ Connor. It’s mentioned that, due to his former position, he used to be an arrogant man who didn’t give anyone below his station a second thought. Because of the loss of most of his power, he now has a different view on life. He’s a fun main character who doesn’t care what others think about him and, although at times he still pines for his old life, he makes due with what he has.

A few other main characters include Murdock, a police detective that asks Connor to help him on the occasional fey-related case, Joe, a hilarious flit who has been by Connor’s side since he was a born, and Meryl, a take-no-nosense, smart-mouth Guild researcher. All of these characters, as well as others that I haven’t mentioned, are likable and make the plot even better.

Speaking of the plot, readers may find this series a bit on the slow side, but I found that aspect enjoyable. You really get a feel of Connor’s everyday life and, although there is plenty of action, it’s realistic in the fact that a bad guy doesn’t pop out from around a corner every couple of pages. Also, each book focuses on its own story line, but at the same time you can tell something bigger is happening behind the scenes that steadily builds up throughout every book.

I’m definitely looking forward to reading the next three and being able to see how Connor’s story concludes.

Happy reading! :)

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