The fantastical creatures of this world are unusual and interesting. I had not come across the mythological adaro before. Able to mesmerize and manipulate humans in their company, Southerland had to keep his wits about him around them. He has the ability to summon and control wind elementals which appear at his command, ready to do his bidding. He names the two we meet in this story Smokey, a tiny cute whirlwind and the larger, scarier bodyguard elemental, Badass. Smokey was a great little character. He immediately recognized that Southerland was different to most summoners in that he actually cared for the elementals he summoned. Crawford the were-rat was also an interesting species. He could transform into 117 rats and needed a minimum of 100 to be back together again in order to communicate with them. I found the mechanics of this intriguing and it was cute the way the rats would stop and wave at Southerland before disappearing off to do their jobs.
Southerland finds himself mixed up in a case with murder, corrupt police and gang violence, all centered around the smuggling of a mysterious refrigerated box, the contents of which remain a mystery right up until the latter part of the story. The pacing was fairly steady throughout the book and kept my attention. I particularly enjoyed the wry humour which was infused throughout.
The majority of the female characters were not painted too well - all of them are attractive caricatures, relying on their sex appeal and not a lot of depth. This is often an unfortunate feature of the private detective genre, but I feel it is getting a little ‘old’ these days and could have perhaps been handled a little better.
The history of this world is often mentioned in passing - a war between Dragon Lords and Elves occurred in the distant past. This is not given much page time until the Epilogue where we learn more of this history. It felt a little out of place here and I wondered if it might have worked better in a conversation earlier on in the book.
I found this book to be an entertaining mystery and a quick read which kept my attention. The addition of fantasy elements made it even more compelling in my opinion.
