dappercat

Dead on the Delta by Stacey Jay is a paranormal romance meets murder mystery thriller. It tells the tale of pill-popping, back-talking, ‘borderline’ alcoholic Annabelle Lee. Set in southern small town Donaldsonville, Louisiana, the scene opens on our protagonist puking her guts. Annabelle is busy collecting evidence from the corpse of six-year-old Grace Beauchamp. The weird thing is that the body shows no signs of infection from the local blood-sucking fairies. When Annabelle’s ex-boyfriend, now an FBI agent, rolls into town, it becomes clear that something sinister is going on. Amidst drug-dealers, invisible assailants, mutant fairies, and tied between her ex-lover and current boyfriend, it’s up to Annabelle to solve the murder.

The prose itself is at times cutting and humorous, at times immature and unprofessional. There is a great diversity of character, and even dysfunctional Annabelle is tempered by character flaws and strengths in equal measure. The plot is fast-paced and contains some great twists. The best part is probably the premise itself; who wouldn’t want to read about blood-sucking, human-flesh-eating, mutant fairies? I’d give this book 3.5 out of 5 stars, which I rounded up to 4 stars for rating purposes because I’m hopeful for the series.