Her urban fantasy novels are engaging and entertaining. After reading several just over a chapter of this, I'm sorry to say it's neither. It very much has the feel of an earlier book published once the author's name is known. The prose is clunky, and clumsy, the atmosphere and the races feel contrived, and the world-building throws new terms and definitions are you so fast you don't have time to care about the characters.

I couldn't be bothered to finish it. ( )

I absolutely love the mix of crime detective, and fantasy. What starts as a normal investigation of a pick pocket goes astray really fast. Arrows and blades start flying, and bodies start hitting the floor as this pair of detectives try to find the threads of what happened.

I don't read a lot of mystery novels, but the fantasy elements, and the mystery seroudning both of the detectives kept me wanting to read more.

The only short coming, for me, was that there wasn't enough description for some of the things. One of the main characters is a human, the other is some sort of cat like creature, but isn't a cat. The book never really says exactly what she is, but does say that she isn't a dog, or a rat at several points. There is a third species that is lizard like, and there is a little more description of that race so I could picture it, but the cat-ish species wasn't described a lot other then the short fur, and various colors of the species.

Other then that, Annie Bellet did a wonderful job of laying out a ground work for her world. There is forbidden magic, holy magic, and lots of slow movement from one side of the city to the other in a horse drawn hack. She really made the world come alive.

And I also loved that I did not see the ending right away. Bellet lays out evidence for several different suspects before we finally get to the end, and the truth. And then there is yet another mystery around the corner. I'll definitely be watching for the next book. ( )

Nice. It's a short book, I discovered when I looked at the page count - I didn't think of it that way while I was immersed in the story. Interesting setting, great worldbuilding (without infodumping - I have no idea why or how three sapient species share this city, but I want to know more!), good story. The twists on magic are elegant - that's _not_ what I've ever thought of a blood mage as being/doing! - though it's a little odd how they share that aspect. It's a police procedural, down to the paperwork, but set in a world with quite a few differences from ours. New partners integrating, with old baggage and ongoing secrets interfering. And politics - that's a universal, I guess. I like Zhivana a lot, and by the end of the book I was starting to like Par - it was hard, earlier on (he's grieving his old partner, who died, and seems to have decided that sulky is the best protection against...everything and everyone, pretty much). Definitely a world and characters I want to see more of; this book is worth rereading, too. Which seems to be a recurring theme with Bellet, for me. ( )

Originally posted on Tales to Tide You Over

Avarice lives up to its subtitle Pyrrh Considerable Crimes Division perfectly. It reminds me a bit of Tamara Siler Jones’ fantasy police novels though this is following modern procedures more closely. I was also doing a binge watch of Castle when I read Avarice, and the commonalities between this novel and the contemporary police work in the TV show were amusing, but I found, at the heart, the draw to both was the same: the characters. The book and program are also both episodic with the book focused around one murder like most of the episodes of Castle do.

Zhivana and Parshan are complicated characters with secrets and a drive to help people even when they would be in real trouble if anyone discovered what they hide. Parshan is also wracked with guilt and grief over the loss of his old partner (in both life and police work), making for an interesting dynamic because he doesn’t want to become close only to lose again. This makes him both angry at the world and somewhat unpredictable as that anger makes him lash out. What he doesn’t know, because Zhivana will do anything to keep him from discovering this, is she can’t be hurt and suspects she cannot die.

The answers to those mysteries are revealed later, but the hints and teases early on create a lovely layer of mystery on top of mystery, making the reader just as eager for the information about the characters as piecing together the mystery of the murder.

Speaking of the murder, the actual case has neat twists and the same kind of putting together disparate information as I’ve enjoyed in Castle, plus the main team is likely to bend the rules and ignore politics in favor of justice for their victim. In this case, as with most mysteries I read, the existence of additional questions is welcome since I pegged the mastermind early on. The case has good seeding that most would notice only in retrospect, but the character interactions and the complex world building kept me going even when the characters didn’t recognize a clue I’d picked up on for a bit. Between the character interactions and the story behind the crime that they put together, I was perfectly happy to ride it out until I learned whether I was right or not.

The layering in of character and world details is also done well. Zhivana is not human. We learn that almost immediately. However, the details of her nature are parceled out like a dot-to-dot picture where you see it take form as you go rather than knowing what you’re trying to reveal. There’s never a huge dump of information, most of which I’d forget soon after reading. Instead, it’s a movement here, a coloration there, and a fact tossed in only where relevant. There were many secondary characters that I connected with as well, making this introduction to Pyrrh a fascinating and multi-layered event.

I had a lot of fun with the read. ( )

Zhivana Nedrogovna moved from the Watch to work in investigation. Zhivana also has partner named Parshan "Par" Kouri, who lost his partner recently, and still grieving. The case they're given is murder but none of the pieces are adding up. They are slowly adjusting to each other but don't completely trust each other either yet. Will the murder be solved? Whose behind the murder? Can Parshan let go of the past? Will Zhivana be accepted? Your answers await you in Avarice.

This is a new to me author. I must admit that I found the book very enjoyable. The characters were unique, flawed, and interesting. The title of the book is aptly named. This book is what I call a page turner because you gotta know what happens next. I will be definitely interested in more of this author's work in the future. ( )