Fourth in the Tiger’s Eye Mystery cozy paranormal romance mystery series and revolving around Tess Callahan, a woman who sees how you’ll die.
My Take
I love how Tess has leveraged her love for art history into knowledge about the items she takes in pawn.
Day has given her heroine plenty of issues, from that first touch curse to her hideous singing to her, ahem, spatial issues and all in first person protagonist point-of-view from Tess’ perspective.
Tess does not want to hear Jack’s stories — especially since he refuses to give out the details. Hmph, “sacred clown trust” indeed. As for Cleveland . . . another hmph. That Day sure knows how to tease a reader . . .
Dead End really is a terrific town. Its citizens are friendly, supportive, intrusive, and always willing to help. And know pretty much everything about everybody. Most of ‘em seem to carry guns . . . or a mini crossbow. Its acceptance of the supernatural gives it a plethora of “interesting” people and their careers.
Those citizens aren’t the only givers. Jack has quite the stash and is always helping out . . . and the Somersaulting Seven reciprocate with an amazing show. It was a treat to read about their performances. A whole lotta givers. Ya gotta love it.
There’re a lot of the Southern cliches about how Southern women act, casseroles in times of trouble, manners, baking, cleaning, and Day makes us laugh and enjoy every bit of it.
We finally learned what happened to Tess’ dad. Jerk.
*Laughing*, lots of butt jokes, poor Dave.
The Story
When Tess Callahan’s long-lost and presumed-dead father comes back to town, running from the mob, she’s not sure how to feel. But when she finds out the bad guys are really after her, to use her “gift” as a weapon, she knows exactly who to turn to.
When Jack Shepherd must confront mob bigwigs, a rogue vampire, and Tess’s dad all in the same day, he realizes that small towns can be every bit as deadly as the rebellion he led when he was a soldier. Tess is in trouble, and there’s no way Jack will let anything happen to her — they haven’t even gone on their first date!
The Characters
Tess Callahan owns a pawnshop that she inherited from her boss, Jeremiah Shepherd. She’s a horrible singer and if she touches someone she sees how they will die. Her stress relief activities are cleaning and baking — and I’d love her to visit my place. “Lou”, a.k.a. Lieutenant Uhuru, is her rescue cat. Her mother died of cancer when she was three, and her father, Thomas Callahan “O’Malley” (Mike’s younger brother), abandoned her. She was lucky to be raised by her uncle and aunt, the now-retired engineer Mike and Ruby Callahan, who live on a farm. Bonnie Jo is their aged horse. Mike and Ruby are now raising the bright nine-almost-ten-year-old Shelley Adler (Dead Eye, 1). Tess’ maternal grandmother, a banshee, gave her a new car (Private Eye, 2).
Jack Shepherd, a Bengal tiger shifter with incredible hearing, is famous as the commander of a rebel army fighting vampires and demons (Heart of Atlantis, 8). He’d inherited half of his uncle Jeremiah’s pawn shop, which he leveraged into half the property on which he built an office for Tiger’s Eye Investigations. Quinn Dawson had been Jack’s partner in war and co-leader of the North American rebellion (Heart of Atlantis).
Molly Chen has been Tess’ best friend since kindergarten when she rescued Tess from a bully. Her band, Scarlett’s Letters, is making a name for itself. Dice is her almost always angry bass guitarist.
Dead End, Florida, lives under . . .
. . . a special charter that exempts Black Cypress county from most federal and state laws. They’ve known about supernatural beings for centuries. Let’s all move there! Beau’s Diner is the only sit-in restaurant, as well as being gossip central. The seventies-something Lorraine is the hostess/waitress/bouncer (and former mayor) at Beau’s. You’ll eat what she tells you! Lauren owns Lauren’s Deli. Larry owns Dead End Towing and has a nasty insight about that corner where Tess crashed.
The police department
Susan Gonzalez is the much better sheriff. Andrew “Andy” Kelly is the chief (and only) deputy. Doc Ike is the county coroner and Dead End’s only doctor. Go to him at your own risk! Belle is the ancient dispatcher.
Carlos Gonzalez is Susan’s now-vampire older brother, who loves pecan pie. He’s fixing up a house near Tess. Special Agent Alejandro Vasquez is with the FBI’s Paranormal Ops division and is a friend to Tess and Jack.
Dead End Pawnshop
Eleanor Wolf is Tess’ secret weapon and part-time 60-something employee. Tess’ customers include Bill Oliver, who keeps bringing his stuffed jackalope in, owns a plumbing company. Blue, a.k.a. Bob Galianakis; Red; Purple, a.k.a. Melvin — the human version of a fainting goat; Green; and, Orange are clowns, the Somersaulting Seven, in need of money. Fifi and Beauregard are part of their act. The Doltar is a fortune teller machine that only tells bad fortunes and was brought in by Junior Schwarzendreiven, who retired from performing and is now the premiere builder and restorer of ventriloquist dummies in the world. Otis used to pawn his stuffed alligator, Fluffy who is now the pawnshop mascot, a little too often. “Beauty”, a.k.a. Anderson’s Champion Sleeping Beauty of Provenance”, is Otis’ rescued greyhound.
The gay Dave Wolf runs a construction company, Wolf Construction, and has been Jack’s best friend since childhood. He’s also Eleanor’s son. Zane, who is best friends with Shelley, is Dave’s adopted son. His employees include Julio Martinez, his right-hand man.
Granny Josephine is famous for her pickled green tomatoes. Sally DeSario is a brownie who works at Dead End Daycare. The Peterson brothers own Dead End Hardware. Mayor Ronald Ratbottom lives up to his name — he’s a rat. Um, not literally. Mrs Frost has a miniature crossbow. Dr Owen Snodgrass is the dentist Tess had been dating. Rooster Jenkins is HUGE. Dr Boston treats Dave. Mellie’s Bakery is famous for her donuts.
The Swamp Commandos are . . .
. . . military vets who didn’t come back right, PTSD, you know. All the boys are ex-special forces of some kind and sound like the kind of friends you want. They’ve started up a swamp boat tour business. Austin and Dallas Fox, brothers and former Army Rangers, are gorgeous (and brilliant) computer hackers.
Jimmy “Sully” O’Sullivan is a mob boss looking to horn in on businesses in Dead End. O’Brien and Smitty are his henchmen.
Dr Linda Parrish and John Luke Arnold Museum of Pirate History is a result of events in Evil Eye, 3. Supernaturals came out to the world in 2006, although, in Evil Eye, Day claims they came out in 1995. Sheriff Lawless and the Kowalskis featured in Dead Eye.
The Cover and Title
The cover is a cartoon graphic of the red, long-haired Tess wearing gray leggings, tennis shoes, and a purple tank top running along a jungle path with an orange and white Bengal tiger just behind her. It’s a rather gloomy jungle with mist-shrouding trees in the background in blacks and greens. There’s an info blurb at the very top in white with the author’s name below it in a day-glo green just above Tess’ head. The title, in white, begins below her knees with the series info below that in a pale yellow.
I’m guessing the title refers to both the series name and Jack’s Eye of Danger when Tess is endangered.