Description
People from across the empire come to the cosmopolitan city-state of Raneadhros to find new lives. After fleeing a past employer she’s sure tried to have her killed, though, Ann Swift’s having trouble starting over: when you’re a six-foot-six wolf woman, it’s hard to convince people you just want a quiet job as an accountant. When Gibson Scava, a brash feline detective investigating the very employer she’s trying to get away from, barges into her life to get her to “work the case” with her, it gets even harder.
As assassins start showing up at her doorstep and the Ranean Guard starts taking a dim view of her “interference,” Ann needs to decide just much she can trust the flirtatious Gibson—and just how far she’s willing to embrace the Big Bad Wolf stereotype she’s been fighting against her whole life.
Set in an inventive society of Victorian engineering, low magic, and human and animal races, this darkly humorous mystery was nominated for a Cóyotl Award in its original publication.
Watts Martin is also the author of the Cóyotl-winning “Indigo Rain,” set in the same world as “Going Concerns,” and of the short story collection Why Coyotes Howl.
Author: Watts Martin
Style: Literary Work
Content: Novella
Pages:
ISBN:
Parental Rating: PG-13
Publication Date: June 2016
Madison (verified owner) –
This is a fun little mystery, well written and with sparkling characters. The mystery itself is a bit open and shut (except for a twist that comes in about 3/4 of the way through), but the real draw is the main character Annie – an out of work accountant – and Scava – the policeman who drags her kicking and screaming into the rank of protagonist.
The dialogue is sharp and flows well and the world is very fleshed out – almost too fleshed out. Gates to other worlds (that have no bearing on the story) and a few other little details hint that this may be a side-story in a larger overall world. At times these bits dragged down the story, but things always quickly bounced back.