Age Group: Adult
Genre: Paranormal Mystery
Release Date: June 13, 2014
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Book Description:
When transsexual starlet Aisling is murdered, Detective Geraldine Meyers is assigned the case. With help from medical examiner Dr. Rachel Hunter, Gerri realizes this is no ordinary killing.
While she might not want to call in over-eager anthropologist Dr. Kinsey DanAllart, the detective is forced to trust her friend’s expertise in symbology, even though doing so means admitting “weird” things might be happening in Silver City.
As the three friends unravel the mystery of the dancer’s death, one thing is made absolutely apparent—something isn’t right in their new hometown. And someone is doing everything they can to make sure the truth doesn’t come out
In Silver City, sometimes friendship can be murder. Welcome to the first Nightshade Case, a series of twenty-one episodes in twenty-one weeks. Please note: this episodic series is based on the television show model, with screenwriting notations and shorter formats. There will be a complete mystery each week, with cliffhangers only occurring in the full season story line.
"Freak Show" by Patti Larsen is the first
‘episode’ in the series, "The Nightshade Cases". I say ‘episode’,
because Larsen has done something a little different with this series. Instead
of modeling it like a normal book series, "The Nightshade Cases" is more
like a TV show on the page.
"Freak Show" is the first of 21 episodes that are
going to be released over 21 weeks, and each one will deal with a new mystery
for the characters to solve, but there's also room for an overall arc that will
span for the ‘season’. There are even notations like you would see in a
screenplay, like the settings and if they're interior or exterior.
I was interested to read this story, because the whole TV
show angle isn't something that I've seen in a book series before and I wanted
to see how it would pan out. Thankfully, Larsen was able to make it all work.
For the most part, "Freak Show" read just like any other book, except
instead of being split up by chapter numbers or titles, it was split by the
notations for where the scene was set.
This episode deals with the death of Aisling, a transsexual
dancer, who was found stabbed to death in the alley by the club she works in,
covered in crazy symbols that the police don't know what to do with. Aisling's
death is a way for us to meet our three main characters – Gerri the cop, Ray
the coroner, and Kinsey the anthropologist/professor. All three of these women
have a preexisting relationship since they were friends in college, but after
their school years fell out of touch a bit. That is, until all three of them
found themselves reconnecting as each one moved to Silver City
"The Nightshade Cases" is not just a mystery
series, though. It also deals with the paranormal. Each of the three main
characters has a special ability that's out of the norm, but they also have
different degrees of how much they believe in the strange and weird. Even
though Gerri has some sort of ‘gut instinct’ that helps her with her cases (way
more than a normal detective's finely tuned instincts), she won't let herself
believe that there's something paranormal happening.
However, her friends Ray and Kinsey are more open to the
idea. Since Ray was a child, she's been able to look at someone and see what is
wrong with them, whether they are sick, or even being able to tell how someone
died just by looking at them. Kinsey, on the other hand, is just now starting
to realize that she can influence the way other people think, and make them see
things how she wants.
The three women work well together. Each one of them uses
her own set of skills and abilities to help solve the case, and each proves to
be an essential part of the team. Gerri, Ray, and Kinsey complement each other
nicely and they not only work well together, but you can tell that they are
also a good support system for one another as friends. I liked the dynamic that
Larsen set up between them, and would like to see more of their teamwork in the
future.
While there is paranormal dealings going on behind the
scenes, "Freak Show" is mostly a cop drama where the mystery takes
center stage. Since this is the first in a series, the characters are still
adjusting to their abilities and working them out, and I'm sure there will be
more paranormal in future episodes, which is something I'm looking forward to.
I write a lot of paranormal books for someone who is afraid of the dark. And I wonder why I have to sleep with the lights on.
Sometimes life is a teenaged B horror movie and I'm the one who investigates when the scary music is playing. But the voices are calling and resistance is…
Yes. I am a Star Trek geek, too. And a fan of RPG’s. With a slight coolness factor since I've been told I'm allowed to join the pops.
Naw. I like being a nerdy girl :)
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