A retirement home in the middle of nowhere has something weird going on. First, a resident claims there are ghosts lurking about. Then, all the residents are dead. Carbon monoxide poisoning is the reason given. But for Cèsar this doesn’t sit right, so against the wishes of his co-worker Suzy, and his boss, Fritz, Cèsar goes poking around with the elusive necrocognitive witch, Isobel. Yet, when they arrive at a memorial service for the seniors, Isobel refuses to talk to the dead and freaks out like Cèsar has never seen her do before.
Shadow Burns still has the same self-deprecating lead, Cèsar, at the helm. I like how he’s consistent, so I feel like I’m getting to know him well. He’s a nerd who loves fantasy novels, Green Lantern, and Firefly. He still lives in the same dumpy apartment because he doesn’t appear to have whatever it is in people that make them get a house, a family, a routine. And he’s still a jock-type who talks about his muscles, though he hasn’t earned them; as a witch, Cèsar makes potions to bulk up. On top of that, he’s not even a great witch. Most of his skill comes from intuition instead of study, the normal route for most witches. Basically, he’s a delightful mix of stereotypes.
And yet there’s an undercurrent in this novel that prevents readers from knowing deeply. Much like the Descent series, so much is kept from readers, but not in an annoying way. We don’t get to know everything about people right away in real life, nor do we in S.M. Reine’s books. Thus, while this Preternatural Affairs series reads largely more snarky and playful, we’re getting a dose of the seriousness that drew me in so deeply to the Descent books. A lot of that comes from Cèsar’s and Fritz’s relationship, which I did get more of! But we still need more, which Cèsar knows: “This guy whose life was tethered to mine, whom I thought I knew pretty well, yet actually knew nothing about at all.”
For the next book: The synopsis tells us the next book is all about Isobel and how she originally met Fritz, which is exactly what I want after the ending of Shadow Burns.
Grab the Lapels 
Man I love a good series. Mine are usually police procedurals with detectives like Bosch or Rebus.
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I almost miss a good procedural because the other series I’m reading is about an FBI agent who keeps getting into bigger and crazier situations with very little detective work. It’s getting too big, like a Marvel movie: destroy city, destroy half the country, destroy the planet, destroy the universe, etc.
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I actually really enjoy when an author ‘holds back’ some parts of the world building. This happens when books are set in the near future too – near enough that we recognize most things, but then little facts are dropped in out of nowhere to make us realize that it’s not present day. I’m reading a book right now that does that. Stay tuned for my review!
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Oooh, I’ll look for it. I’m catching up on blog posts today and this weekend.
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A retirement home! Now that’s more up my alley, haha. And, I agree with you about not getting to know everything about people right away in real life, so we don’t need to it novels either, though of course, it’s more series like these that have the luxury of slow divulgence. There’s a challenge though I guess is working out just how much to share (to keep people reading) and how much to hold back (to have more interesting stuff to say rather than just plot).
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Now that I think about it, this is the second work I’ve read recently set in a retirement home. I’m starting to see how vulnerable these people are because whenever an older person dies, the response tends to me, “Well, old people die!” There could be so much more to it…
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Absolutely. For example, just as for so long women’s health was not a priority because they were deemed lesser, so I think it has been for older people. Quality of life is important from cradle to grave, and respect for human beings likewise. As more people are living longer, older people’s needs are increasingly in the spotlight which is a good thing. My generation, though, feels a bit like a guinea pig for health! I’m not complaining though. Someone has to be and the sooner the better!
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