"Cassie Scot: ParaNormal Detective" by Christine Amsden / Wednesday, May 15, 2013 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

Nothing delights me more than a new discovery and what delights me even more is that I found it from an independent publisher here in my own backyard, Twilight Times Books in Kingsport, Tennessee?

“Cassie Scot: ParaNormal Detective” by Christine Amsden is a promising debut of a new, everyday girl detective in a not-so-everyday world.

We can’t all be superstars.  That’s the case with dully normal Cassie Scot, the most untalented and unmagical of her magical family.  Life gives us lemons and some, like Cassie, make lemonade.  She decides to set up a detective agency in her hometown of Eagle Rock, Missouri, a real place it seems in unincorporated Barry County, population 1,200.  After reading about all the bizarre things that go on there in this book, it is definitely a place I think I would like to visit.

Six months after opening her agency, Cassie still doesn’t have a client.  Here’s where things get energized: she is hired in her first job to deliver a subpoena to a local witch.  Easy enough.  Her family has put her in those circles.  But along the way, she finds a dead body.  Then she becomes the target of vampires.  Add a sorcerer and you have a grand collection of delightfully normal (and abnormal) characters.  Like Carl Kolchak of my own youth, Cassie – because she has none of her family’s magical powers – is forced to fight the legerdemain of the underworld with the same set of skills we plain mortals have: courage, practical common sense, and sometimes unexpected good fortune.  That’s what makes her so identifiable.  She brings to the book nothing more than what we might, as well.

Like “Harry Potter,” this story and the younger characters who populate it appeal to a wide demographic and give us that world within a world full of delightful story possibilities.  This book is not just for adults.  I’ll be recommending this to my son.  It’s a fun story with a fun character.  I look forward to the next book in the series.

– Clay Stafford is an author / filmmaker and founder of Killer Nashville. Stafford’s latest projects are the documentary “One of the Miracles” and the music CD “XO”.

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Remember that these books are listed at a discount through Amazon. You also don’t have to purchase the version that is featured here. Many of these books are available in multiple formats: e–book, hardcover, softcover, and audio. Enjoy!

"Dead Letter Day" by Eileen Rendahl / Tuesday, March 12, 2013 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

A smorgasbord of supernatural characters await in Eileen Rendahl’s well-written “Dead Letter Day.”  Third in the series and a combination of mystery, fantasy, and romance, this novel is an excellent blend of story elements set in our “human” world with a nice, steady, progressive plot.  Series character Melina Markowitz can sense supernatural beings.  Her friend Paul – a werewolf – has gone missing.  From there and while circumventing a cast of otherworld characters, Melina must first determine if Paul’s disappearance is sinister and, if so, then rescue him.  Rendahl has a nice arc going with Melina who continues to grow here in Book Three with newly discovered and growing powers, and a personal issue quite unexpected for a messenger of the spiritual world.  I eagerly look forward to how Rendahl plays out the personal developments in Book Four and how that element changes the perspective of the main character Melina.  “Dead Letter Day,” by the way, is enjoyable as a standalone title without having read the previous books in the series.
– Clay Stafford, author and founder of Killer Nashville

Buy the book from the Killer Nashville Bookstore and help support a new generation of writers and readers.

Visit our bookstore for other similar books.

If you want to make your own comments on this selection, we would love to hear from you. Join our Facebook Killer Nashville group page or our blog and join in the discussion.

Remember that these books are listed at a discount through Amazon. You also don’t have to purchase the version that is featured here. Many of these books are available in multiple formats: e–book, hardcover, softcover, and audio. Enjoy!