Hey Intrepid Readers, 

I'm talking mini-review today.  A while back I received an ebook from my 'tweep' Naomi Clark; a copy of her short story Ungrateful Dead, an Ethan Banning case. I figured I'd do Naomi a solid and give her something more than my quickie "@naomi_jay Ungrateful Dead-Thanks for holding the zombies. Charlie-cute; Ethan-that's why they call them hard boiled. Demonised-cor blimey!" tweet.  So here it is, my mini review. 

     Ungrateful Dead was an introduction to Ethan Banning for me, but not an introduction to author Naomi Clark. (If you've read QUEER WOLF then you've read the awesome Wolf Strap which introduces readers to girl-power-getting-her-bitch-on lesbian werewolf Ayla Hammond. A character whose tale is continued in the whoopass novel SILVER KISS!)  But let's talk about down-on-his-luck, Ethan Banning, private dick. (Psst ask Naomi for a copy of Ungrateful Dead, it's FREE). 

     Straight off the bat he struck me as the original 'hard boiled' kind of private investigator and the reader is plunged into the kind of seedy world you'd expect from the noir in which Ethan Banning lives and breathes. I could instantly imagine him chatting up a 'leggy dame' who walked into his office in a voice as dry as dirt; not that his client in this short tale is such a dame; rather it's a medical examiner and the only dame in the piece is dead and rather pissed about it. Reading Ungrateful Dead, I actually 'heard' Ethan (you know like in my head) with that deep, monotone Bogie voice going on.

     The short read itself is packed with humour and delivers high impact for all that this is a quick read; there's a ghost, a morgue, a client and I'm pretty sure there's even a knock knock joke thrown in there too. Or maybe that was just me. It's well worth grabbing and reading for anybody who loves a good ghost in the morgue and PI story; whether you're interested in the supernatural angle, the noir private investigator angle, or that touch of grim in your humour angle, Ungrateful Dead delivers and it delivers promptly.

     The story is also a bit of promo for the upcoming Ethan Banning novella by Naomi Clark called DEMONISED. The first chapter of this novella comes along with your copy of Ungrateful Dead and is a definite hook into another tale, another case. It's this opener that, to my mind, fixed that descriptor 'hard boiled' to Ethan Banning, PI, and it is a taster that promises a blooming brilliant read. What I got out of chapter one is that DEMONISED offers readers hardcore private dick like no paranormal you've read before. (Yes I said it that way and I'm sticking with it.) Will it deliver? I'm betting it will!

    I guess what I'm saying is keep an eye out for DEMONISED! While you wait, you can take Ethan out for a test drive by getting Ungrateful Dead and seeing how his engine races.

     DEMONISED: (The Blurb)
     PI Ethan Banning is smoking too much, sleeping too little, and hearing voices. One voice, to be exact: the voice of the demon that possessed him on his last case. A voice that urges him to hurt, rape, kill ... and Ethan doesn't think he has the strength to ignore it much longer.

     When his latest missing person case turns into a murder investigation, Ethan finds himself fighting not just demonic urges, but black magic, an incubus with a hidden agenda, and a client who just won't pay up. Luckily, Ethan's got a few friends on his side, like Detective Anna Radcliffe, and his trusty dog, Mutt. If Ethan can ignore the demon long enough, he might just solve this case before it kills him.