Unshapely Things

 Description from Goodreads:
Unshapely Things by Mark Del Franco

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.


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Hmm how do I put this book down nicely?  This book is slow.  So slow in fact, that nothing of interest happens until a good 100 pages into the book.  Connor goes about his daily life still struggling to come to terms with his loss of magic abilities.  He collects tidbits of information here and there and when the book starts to get interesting Connor goes right back to describing how he takes his coffee at any temperature...wtf?  I felt no sense of urgency in this book and had to wait until page 253 ( the book is 305 pages) for things to get somewhat engrossing.  In the final fight scene, I didn't really care what happened I just wanted the book to end.   
In my opinion this book should have been made into a short story.  All of the endless details about the city, alleys, buildings, and the politics about the fey queen were all pretty much useless in this story.  I get that Del Franco was world building and all but Connor's voice was just plain boring.  He had no spark, no personality, and he was exceptionally dull.  Now if this was a short story, and pretty much the first 8 chapters taken out of the book THEN it would be much more riveting.  Maybe even take out the first 10 chapters!

Oh and I cannot tell you how much it bugs me that the title and author's name on the book cover is in all lower case letters.  Incredibly irritating!!   I've taken the liberty of fixing it to make myself feel better.
Also I would just like to point out how clever they are with their word play on the cover "Down in the Weird, crime isn't black-and-white.  That's where Grey comes in..."  Get it?  Cause his name is Connor Grey?  HA HA! That is good!








 Needless to say I will not be reading the rest of this series.  I'll stick to my beloved Dresden Files thank you very much!   (I love you Jim Butcher)


Next up to read is Would-Be Witch by Kimberly Frost.  This is the last author for the F's and then its on to the G's!! woohoo!!