Book Review: "The Lost": Celestial Blues #2 by Vicki Pettersson

The Lost review
Author: Vicki Pettersson
5 out of 5 stars

Book Info: Genre: Urban Fantasy/Noir
Reading Level: Adult
Recommended for: fans of urban fantasy, Noir, Rockabilly lifestyle, paranormal romantic suspense
Trigger Warnings: drug use, abuse, and overdose; gangster/mobsters; murder

My Thoughts: I have to say that I think I would probably kill for a car like Kit's. I looked it up and the Duetto is just a gorgeous piece of machinery.


I was really impressed by a bit of detail I noticed in the story, and that is Sergei and Yulyia Kolyadenko. Sergei is described as being from Kiev, and Kolyadenko is a proper Ukranian name. Not every author would take the time to make sure they had the correct regional name!

The drug mentioned in this story, krokodil (street name for desomorphine) is just as nasty as described. If you do a Google image search, you will find image after image of people with the flesh literally rotted off and exposing their bones. It's a truly nasty drug. You would think, “why would someone do that to themselves?” but this drug is the type that is almost instantly addictive. It takes about a half hour to cook it up, and the high lasts only 90 minutes, so once a person has taken that first hit, they're pretty much doomed unless they have the stamina to last through the month it takes to clear out of their system. The fact that people created this thing just blows my mind, and that fact that other people are willing to make their living by basically destroying other people with this sort of drug... it's a terrible thing. I found a very interesting video (and short article), which I've linked here (for sites that allow links and formatting) if you're interested in learning more.

As to the story itself... like the first book, this sort of crossed the urban fantasy/noir/romantic suspense genre lines. However, this book is much more action-based than the first, since most of the characters have already been established in that first book, and the romance aspect is even more subdued, since Grif and Kit are actually together in this book. It's an enjoyable story, and I'm definitely liking the overall story arc of the series, in addition to the specific stories in the books. This is a series I will absolutely be continuing! Recommended!

Series Information: The Lost is the second book in the Celestial Blues series.
Book 1: The Taken, read and reviewed in September, 2012. Review linked here where formatting allowed.

Disclosure: I received an ARC copy of this book from the Amazon Vine program in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis: Griffin Shaw and his wife were both murdered fifty years ago. Now a minor angel, Grif's been granted permission to solve the mystery of his own death... if he helps the Pure angels guide those souls who might otherwise be Lost.

Souls like Jeap Yang, a drug addict in his final moments of life. Grif knows that death is coming, but he cannot intervene. However, Grif's mortal lover, reporter Katherine "Kit" Craig, isn't constrained by angelic protocol. If she can stop a death, she will.

But as Kit is about to find out, there are things more traumatic and evil than murder. A strange new drug is literally eating tweakers' flesh from their bones, and Kit's crusade to get it off the streets is set to propel her and Grif into a battle with a vicious drug cartel. They'll have to scramble to stay alive, stay together, and choose their own fate... before it's chosen for them.

Book Review: "Bitter Drink" by F.G. Haghenbeck

Bitter Drink review
Author: F.G. Haghenbeck
5 out of 5 stars

Book Info: Genre: Crime Noir Reading Level: Adult

Disclosure: I received a free paperback galley from the Amazon Vine program in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis: Beatnik detective Sunny Pascal is an expert at two things: cocktails and finding trouble. And when the filming of John Huston's The Night of the Iguana hits a few snags with its sexed-up, star-studded cast in a Puerto Vallarta paradise, producer Ray Stark brings Sunny in to chill out the set. But matters get tipsy when someone's found deader than dead, shot down by a gun belonging to one of the cast members.

Now Sunny's got to keep his Hollywood stars out of jail long enough for him to solve the case. But the trouble doesn’t stop with murder. The Mexican mafia and local newspapers wage a tension war against the hedonistic Americans, and if John Huston has anything to say about it, Sunny's got to be the one to keep the show on the road. Only Sunny will be doing it his way: with a martini in one hand and a Colt in the other. 

My Thoughts: This book; what to say about this book. Well, you could definitely make a drinking game out of it! Start each chapter with the described cocktail and song and, as you read along, set specific events to take an extra drink. Every time someone is killed or attacked, take a drink; everytime Sgt. Quintero says mis huevos (literally “my eggs”, but colloquially: “balls”), take a drink, etc. You wouldn’t get much reading done in any given day, but you sure would have fun doing it!

Speaking of Sgt. Quintero, he made me think: “Sadsack Gonzales, the saddest mouse in all of Mexico.” I loved his deadpan nature – “Sergeant Quintero explained everything so halfheartedly a mannequin could have done better” – and all his interactions with Sunny Pascal were just priceless. The author said that much of this book is based upon real events and actual conversations, but leaves it up to the reader to find out which actually happened and which came from his own imagination. I thought that was fascinating.

He has a real gift for description, as this description of John Huston proves: “He wasn’t as tall as he looked in photographs, just slightly shorter than a palm tree. His voice wasn’t that deep either, only a notch lower than a lawn mower. He puffed on a cigar the size of a rolling pin, perfuming the entire set. His face, underneath the Panama hat jammed down over his ears, radiated power – a god looking down upon mere mortals. He embodied the kind of power possessed by those who run the movie business. And that’s the only power that counts here.”

This book is a love-letter to Raymond Chandler and Paco Ignacio Taibo II; a feast of noir. It’s also a love-letter to Puerto Vallarta, a place I would have loved to have seen during the time of The Night of the Iguana, before it was taken over by tourists. If this sounds like your sort of book, you really won’t want to miss this – a fun, fast, and furious read. Recommended.