Unnatural Acts

Today’s post is on Unnatural Acts by Kevin J. Anderson. It is the second in his Dan Shamble series and 325 pages long including a sample of the third book. The plot is told from the first person point of view of the main character Dan Shamble. The cover has Dan and Sheyenne together with a Shakespeare play going on in the background. The intended reader is someone likes funny novels making fun of fantasy and urban fantasy tropes. If you liked the first novel you will like this one too. There is no sex, mild language, and the violence is pretty funny. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the back of the book- To Be Dead Or Not To Be Dead. In the Unnatural Quarter, golems slave away in sweatshops, necromancers sell black-market trinkets to tourists, and the dead rise up- to work the night shift. But zombie detective Dan Shamble is no ordinary working stiff. When a local senator and his goons picket a ghostly production of Shakespeare in the Dark- condemning the troupe’s “unnatural” lifestyles- Dan smell something rotten. And is something smells rotten to a zombie, you’re in serious trouble…
Before his way of life, er, death, is destroyed, Dan wants answers. Along the way he needs to provide security for a mummified Madame, defend a mixed- race couple (he’s a vampire, she’s a werewolf) from housing discrimination, and save his favorite watering hole, the Goblin Tavern, from drying up. Throw in a hairy hitman, a necro-maniac, and a bank robber who walks through walls, and Dan Shamble’s plate is full. Maybe this time, the zombie detective has bitten off more than can chew…

Review- I had so much fun reading this book. It is funny, clever, and has good characters. I was reading five chapters of this book as a reward to myself as I read one of my nonfiction books about a pretty horrifying topic so I needed all the laughs that I could get. This novel picks up pretty soon after the end of the first one so you do not have to do much catch up and can just jump right into the story. The clients are just as wacky, the case themselves just as weird, and Dan just as funny as the first novel.  One of the funny gags in this novel is that the witches from the first are now ghostwriting, with the help of a vampire, the adventures of Dan Shamble zombie P.I. and I hope to read some of that in the next book. If you are looking for a laugh or urban fantasy series that does not take itself or anything too seriously then try this one. I personally love it.

I give this book a Five out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I bought this book with my own money.