Mark Del Franco, Unshapely Things

Unshapely Things

Mark Del Franco

Ace, February, $7.99, 320 pp.

ISBN 0441014771

In 1900 the convergence happened and two worlds became one. The people of Faerie popped into the mortal world with some of the pieces of their former realm and humans had to adjust to a new environ. The Ward Guild is the policing agent for the fey and at one time Conner Grey, a powerful druid, was one of their rising stars. After tangling with an eco-terrorist elf with a power ring he didn't know how to use, Conner ended up in the hospital, his power severely diminished and a dark mass in his head that nobody knows what it is.

Now he spends his days as an advisor to the Boston P.D. on matters pertaining to the fae and he is helping his police officer friend Murdock with a serial killer case in which faeries of a certain type are murdered, their hearts ripped out and a stone put in its place. When the Ward Guild takes jurisdiction, Conner can't let the case go and decides to investigate on his own in spite of the danger because if the ritual killings are completed, the world as humans know it ends.

Mark Del Franco has written an enjoyable and entertaining urban fantasy that will thoroughly entertain readers who like Laurell K. Hamilton, Mercedes Lackey and Kim Harrison. The fae are well constructed characters and readers will find them very fascinating because of their different values and culture than that of humans. There is a lot of action in this tale but it is the hero who holds the storyline together as a bridge between the human and fae community. The audience will look forward to other works starring this protagonist who, like a former great athlete past his prime, is trying to overcome the loss of much of his powers.

Harriet Klausner