Deadline: Snarky Urban Fantasy Mystery Series Starter

Jennifer Blackstream

Jan 2018 · Blood Trails Book 1 · Skeleton Key Publishing

About this ebook

 USA Today bestselling author Jennifer Blackstream unveils a new action-packed urban fantasy series that NYTimes #1 bestselling author Patricia Briggs calls “Fun, quirky and addictive. It starts good and just gets better. Highly recommended.”

As a witch with a dark past, Shade Renard knows the Otherworld isn’t always successful at policing itself. Humans don’t believe in magic anymore, and their ignorance renders them easy prey. So when an FBI contact hires her to consult on a possible haunting in a missing person case, Shade seizes the opportunity to see justice done. 

The investigation takes an unexpected turn when an undead crime lord shows up on her doorstep. A bold thief stole the vampire’s little black book of secrets—and he’ll pay a lot more than an FBI consulting fee to get it back. To collect, Shade will have to confront a rogue sorceress—or two, a vengeful wizard, and a lethally seductive fey, with only her wits, her growing magic, and a sarcastic pixie familiar. Success means bringing a killer to justice and taking the first step to redemption. Failure means a war between humans and the Otherworld. 

No pressure. 

Deadline is the first novel in the Blood Trails urban fantasy. For fans of Jim Butcher, Terry Pratchett, and Laurell K. Hamilton, this is a snarky urban fantasy series featuring village witch-turned PI Shade Renard and her sarcastic pixie familiar Peasblossom. It’s an urban fantasy/whodunit full of magic, mayhem, and murder, with plenty of books in the series to satisfy the voracious book wyrm… Happy reading!

All of my books are written in the same universe (yes, the Blood Trails series is contemporary, not historical like the Blood Prince/Blood Realm series—so you’ll have to read Deadline to find out how I managed that…). Be ready for crossovers and cameos!

Series keywords: Shade Renard series, urban fantasy, contemporary fantasy, fantasy series, speculative fiction, paranormal, humor, female protagonist, action, adventure, magic, very slow-burn romance, witch, private investigator, amateur detective, murder mystery, whodunit, wizard, werewolves, shifters, fey, monsters, Otherworld, long series

Ratings and reviews

Shade is a witch who studied under Baba Yaga for, perhaps, centuries. And yet, she is still young and inexperienced. She's only been the "village" witch for a few years. She hates the outdated title Mother. She lives in the modern world, where few know about the Otherworld. Her familiar is a pixie woman who is older than her, but whom she tends to treat as a child, because she acts that way. Frankly, Shade acts like a teenager at times, as well. The story and world-building were interesting. I hope that the characters we've met remain relevant and are fleshed out more in subsequent books. I would have preferred the initial case in this book have been wrapped up "on screen" instead of just saying it was dealt with that morning. The new case that was introduced at the end of this book had better be addressed in the next book! There seemed to be an inconsistency with time in this book. Shade only had three days to solve the larger case she agreed to. At one point, she noted that she only had twelve hours left, so she didn't see any sleep in her near future. In the next chapter, she noted she had twenty-four hours left. I was interested enough to buy the next book. I'll see how it goes and decide whether to continue the series.

Couldn't put it down. Really enjoyed it.

eh aku mau tau gmna cara bacanya kalo gk ada b indo nya,, apakah saya harus translate dulu? mau tanya,

About the author

 USA Today bestselling author Jennifer Blackstream is…odd. Putting aside the fact that she writes her own author bio in third person, she also sleeps with a stuffed My Little Pony that her grandmother bought her as a joke for her 23rd birthday, and she enjoys listening to Fraggle Rock soundtracks whether or not her children are in the car. 

Jennifer understands that it is customary for authors to talk about how they started writing, and how they’ve been coming up with stories since they were children. But Jennifer is a rebel, so she’s not going to talk about that. Instead, she’s going to share a quote from Terry Pratchett that she feels best describes where authors get their inspiration: 

“Little particles of inspiration sleet through the universe all the time travelling through the densest matter in the same way that a neutrino passes through a candyfloss haystack, and most of them miss. Even worse, most of the ones that hit the exact cerebral target hit the wrong one. For example, the weird dream about a lead doughnut on a mile-high gantry, which in the right mind would have been the catalyst for the invention of repressed-gravitational electricity generation (a cheap and inexhaustible and totally non-polluting form of power which the world in question had been seeking for centuries, and for the lack of which it was plunged into a terrible and pointless war) was in fact had by a small and bewildered duck.”

All of that is to say, that authors are what happens when a falling particle of inspiration strikes someone insane enough to think spending their life arguing with imaginary people about how their story should be written is a grand idea.

Jennifer doesn’t have spare time, but she makes it a point to spend at least one night a week with her sibling binge-watching whatever show they’re currently plowing through (currently Numbers on Netflix), and she ferociously guards quality time with her son and daughter. She cooks when she has the sanity for it—adding garlic to the recipe whether it calls for it or not—and tries very hard not to let her arachnophobia keep her out of her basement on laundry day.

Jennifer’s influences include Terry Pratchett (for wit), Laurell K. Hamilton (for sexual tension), Jim Butcher (for roguish flair), and Kim Harrison (for mythos). She is currently writing the series of her heart and her dreams, the series that has been percolating in her brain for the last decade…Blood Trails. An Urban Fantasy Mystery series that will combine the classic whodunit spirit with a contemporary fantasy setting. Expect mystery, magic, and mayhem, with characters that will make you laugh, cry, and probably stare at the screen with your jaw hanging down to the floor. Well, that’s how they affect Jennifer anyway…

Jennifer currently has three series going:

BLOOD PRINCE SERIES (COMPLETE):

Book 1 – Before Midnight

Book 2 – One Bite

Book 3 – Golden Stair

Book 4 – Divine Scales

Book 5 – Beautiful Salvation

Bonus Adventures in the Blood Prince World:

Book 2.5 – What Big Teeth You Have (free when you sign up for mailing list mentioned below)

Book 4.5 – The Pirate’s Witch

Book 5.5 – Dead to Begin With (available only between Thanksgiving and whenever Jennifer takes her Christmas tree down)

BLOOD REALM SERIES (IN PROGRESS SPIN-OFF OF BLOOD PRINCE SERIES):

Book 1 – All for a Rose

Book 2 – Blue Voodoo

Book 3 – The Archer

Book 4 – Bear With Me

Book 5 – Stolen Wish

BLOOD TRAILS SERIES (URBAN FANTASY)

Book 1 – Deadline

Book 2 – Monster

Book 3 – Taken

Book 4 – Corruption

Book 5 – Mercenary