Trickster Noir, by Cedar Sanderson

5.0 out of 5 stars
Such a GREAT follow-up to the FIRST pixie book I really liked!
March 7, 2015

This review is from: Trickster Noir (Pixie for Hire Book 2) (Kindle Edition)
Full disclosure statement #1: I received the beta version of this ebook for review purposes. Full disclosure statement #2: I love reading Cedar Sanderson's work.
Trickster Noir takes place immediately after the events of Pixie Noir. It's been four months since I read Pixie Noir, so I did a quick re-read of Pixie to make sure I was up to speed. That may have been a mistake, in one respect: I found myself wishing I had re-read the entire book, just because this series is so much FUN!!!!! But I can re-read Pixie Noir at any time, and probably will.
So, Lom the Pixie Bounty Hunter is near dead, and his love Bella has power she hasn't learn how to handle, and there is Intrigue In Court. And prospective pixie mothers-in-law. The lady is TIRED! (Tired of playing the game, tired of (no, wait, that's Madeline Kahn in Blazing Saddles)). So, to rest, she gets...
...to go kill monsters.
And here's one of the reasons I really like Cedar's writing: her characters know how to Blow Stuff Up and Kill Monsters. She doesn't write like Larry Correia, but they've seen the same playbook, and she has Bella make use of BOTH her pixie skills AND her human skills to take care of business. A nest full of monsters that eat campers being the first order thereof. Fortunately, her sweetie-pie Lom, despite being bedridden, has an armory that Bela is able to access WHILE IN THE FIELD (!!!) so she can call them out of Underhill to the forest where they are needed, without having to carry them or being asked why they are packing a belt-fed grenade launcher. And there is a Nitro Express .600, which she wisely gives to someone else to fire.
Downside: Bella's backup gun is a .380. The manufacturer is not mentioned, but I do so hope that it's not the model I have, because the thing is so light-weight (at 8.3 ounces unloaded) that the recoil is painful. Maybe Bella has a Ruger or a Sig. It is a good piece for concealed carry/backup, though, and so is another example of the good attention to detail that makes Cedar's work so appealing.
Another thing I like about the series: Bella has great connections with her human relations, she likes pizza, and she is a trained EMT. So, when bad guys fight back, she's there with more than a poof -magic-spell-you-are-all-better, she knows how to stop bleeding, maintain the airway, and control for shock. James Bond never did SQUAT for that.
And I was taken back to 1973, to the barracks at 5th General Hospital in Bad Canstatt, Germany, which is where I first heard of Baba Yaga's chicken legged hut, from the Emerson Lake and Palmer album 'Pictures at an Exhibition.' Baba Yaga is a CREEPY figure, and Lom, Bella, and David the firebird get to fight her.
And the Muppets. Well, one of them. Beaker. That's what they name the dragon that almost kills them, but then becomes their friend. Is that not cool?
I've skipped over such a great deal, like the Herculean tasks set Lom by Bella's mentor. Which I should NOT do, because in the course of it, it taught me something I did not know: Winchester at one point put out a bolt-action .30-30. My .30-30 was lever action, which I bought because it's featured in the first gun battle in 1632, and I just never thought of it as a bolt action cartridge. But CEDAR knew!
And there is at least one more nook in the series. Are we happy? Yeah, we're happy!