Review: Not a Werewolf by Madeline Kirby

Title: Not a Werewolf

Series: Jake & Boo: Book One

Author: Madeline Kirby

Publisher: Self-Published

Length: 219 Pages

Category: Urban Fantasy, Murder Mystery, Humor, Cozy Mystery

At a Glance: Madeline Kirby’s Not a Werewolf didn’t draw me in immediately, it charmed me in, and that was a sincere revelation.

Reviewed By: Lisa

Blurb: When perpetual student Jake Hillebrand starts having strange dreams, no theory is too outlandish – even the possibility that he has become a werewolf. His best friend Don is no help, though – he doesn’t even believe in werewolves!

When the dreams lead Jake and Don to the body of a despised developer dumped along a Houston bayou, the only ones listening to Jake’s theories are the dishy Detective Ruben Petreski and Jake’s feline visitor, Boo.

In a historic neighborhood under threat from developers, everyone is a suspect, but so far all Jake’s new-found psychic abilities seem to be good for is finding kittens and talking to squirrels. He’s really going to have to up his game if he wants to escape the killer’s attention – and catch Detective Petreski’s.

Note: Contains excessive caffeine intake, cats, irritable detectives, lots of carbs, and no werewolves.

Review: Perpetual university student Jake Hillebrand’s dreams have taken a rather disturbing turn; in fact, one might even say they’ve developed nightmarish overtones. Jake can sense that he’s been dreaming from the point of view of a dog, which is what leads him to confess to his best friend, Don, that he might be a werewolf. Of course, as one would expect, Don is skeptical. I mean, a werewolf? Really? Jake does love a good Paranormal Romance, so it’s possible his imagination might be influenced just a bit by the books he consumes (which is comedically ironic). But then Jake leads Don to the site of the first dream, and they rescue the kitten Jake had seen there. Then…it’s not quite so comical anymore. Don’s disbelief is further challenged when they get to the scene of Jake’s second dream, a nightmarish murderscape that shook Jake to his very core. Now, Don can no longer deny with any conviction that Jake’s dreams are prophetic.

Jake meeting Detective Ruben Petreski at the scene of a property developer’s murder is not exactly a love at first sight affair, but it doesn’t take long before Petreski makes it known that he’s concerned about Jake’s wellbeing in more than a casual, professional way. When a black cat shows up on Jake’s doorstep and he spontaneously names the cat Boo, evidence points to there being something unusual about both Jake and Boo. It’s Petreski who helps Jake figure out what that something is when the squirrel Jake has been feeding tells Jake his name is Raymond…Raymond the Squirrel ::cue delight::

Jake is not only an apparent animal magnet, though; he’s a people magnet as well, which works to his advantage. People like to chit-chat with Jake, and that along with his supernatural connection to the critters, as well as his amateur sleuthing with Don, all converge to allow Jake to help solve the mystery of Clarence Wilton’s untimely and violent demise. If it doesn’t kill Jake first, that is. Or Petreski’s partner, Perez, doesn’t off Jake herself (there’s some backstory there that supports this statement).

This is not a hardboiled police procedural sort of murder mystery, it’s a cozy, and one of its best attributes, apart from its oozing with charm, is that it’s not an emotionally taxing read, which is precisely what I needed when I read it: a light, easy-breezy and undemanding story that offered me the chance to ignore the real world for a while. I went into it with zero expectations and came out on the other side of it surprised by how much I enjoyed giving my time to it. Not a Werewolf didn’t draw me in immediately, it charmed me in, and that was a sincere revelation.

Part Urban Fantasy, part cozy mystery, and fully adorable, Not a Werewolf is a low angst kind of read that defines pure, unadulterated escapism, and I really can’t overstate its adorability factor enough. It made me smile, and I can never fault a book for that.

You can buy Not a Werewolf here:
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