If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you might remember that I reviewed Magic, Mensa and Mayhem by Karina Fabian last year. (If you haven’t been reading here long, feel free to go read that post and then come back to this one. It’s okay; I’ll wait. Back? Great!) I said then that I was regretting reading so fast because the next DragonEye, PI book didn’t come out until this month. Hooray! Live and Let Fly is out! Guess how long it took me to read this one?
If you guessed “Not very,” you win a cookie. Vern is as captivating as ever, as is Sister Grace. This book takes place in Los Lagos, so there’s a lot more local flavor than in Magic, Mensa and Mayhem. The humor is wonderful, ranging from Monty Python jokes to bad translations to the Evil Overlord List. The story doesn’t rely on humor alone, however; that’s just Fabian’s voice and style. There are also actual detective work, history lessons from Faerie, and solid, believable characters. Oh, and lots of spy film and book references, from the title to Agent Guy Powers to BILE to . . . well, you’ll just have to read for yourself and see how many you can identify.
Now I just have to deal with the long wait until a new Vern and Sister Grace book comes out!
If this sounds like lots of fun to you, you can order direct from MuseItUp.
Here’s a video of Fabian reading a scene from the book:
Now — if you’re still here — you can enter to win an e-copy of the book just by commenting on this post or the guest post from Karina Fabian that will be going up soon. Winner will be chosen by random number generator.
Thanks so much for hosting me. I’m glad you enjoyed the book. When you pick the winner, let me know also what format they want the e-book in. Good luck, folks.
Thank you for asking me to be part of your blog tour!
Is it out in paperback yet?
I don’t know if or when they’re doing a paper version, Ross. Your best bet is to go to the Muse It Up site and fill out their contact form to ask them.
Yes. Not all of us do e-books….
Ross, MuseItUp does their books in e-press for a year, then in paperback except in special circumstances. I, too, prefer paper still. With Kathleen, that’s three people so far who have asked about paperback. Maybe if I get enough interest, I can talk my publisher into bringing it out in paper earlier.
If you’re interested, e-mail publisher AT museituppublishing DOT com, and ask them to let you know when it comes out in paperback. That would help immensely, I think!