Spell Blind-David B. Coe

Spell Blind

David B. Coe

Baen, Jan 6 2015, $25.00

ISBN 9781476780245

Weremyste, Justis Fearsson struggles with aptly named lunacy just before, during and after a full moon arises.  The Phoenix Police Department fired him after six plus years on the force mostly as a Homicide Detective due to his full moon 72 hours or so of temporary insanity.  To make a living, Justis became a private investigator.

Affluent North Scottsdale residents Michael and Sissy Tyler hire Justis to find their runaway teenage daughter Jessie, who two weeks ago emptied her checking account of several thousand dollars.  Justis learns from Sissy’s friends and sister that she behaved oddly self-destructive prior to her vanishing and along with other evidence, the sleuth believes she hooked up with a myste.  He rescues Sissy and other children from a drug-dealing myste, but the unscrupulous culprit escapes by using the kids as deadly targets.  Not long after this, Justis becomes involved in the Blind Angel serial killer case; an unfinished failure that still disturbs him from his cop days.  With help from his former PPD partner Kona, reporter Billie Castle and a ghost, Justis diligently follows clues to end this psychopath’s reign of terror.

Mindful of Jim Butcher’s early Dresden like Full Moon starting with if you look in the Phoenix phone book under private investigators, you'll find an ad with a picture of Justis, Spell Bind is a terrific opening act due to an intriguing lead.  The storyline starts leisurely-paced even with the hero saving the children as the audience learns the rules of David B. Coe’s Arizona.  Once we understand the rudiments of Coe world, this private investigator urban fantasy accelerates into a magical cat and mouse war between a 24/7 lunatic and a full moon lunatic.

Harriet Klausner