Guest Review: Precinct 13 by Tate Hallaway

Posted January 9, 2013 by Tracy in Reviews | 1 Comment

Publisher: Berkley, PenguinGenres: Urban Fantasy

Tracy’s review of Precinct 13 by Tate Hallaway 

Recent college grad Alex Conner is thrilled to have landed a job as the Hughes County coroner/medical examiner in Pierre, South Dakota. But when her first day on the job ends with a missing corpse, Alex starts to wonder if she would have been better off collecting unemployment…

When the cops made some cryptic comments about being careful with the body they brought in, Alex just thought the boys in blue were messing with her. That is, until something freaky happens that no amount of med school could have prepared her for. By the time Alex gets herself together, the body has disappeared and the other residents of the morgue start talking her ear off.

After working up the courage to report the missing body, Alex is transferred to the mysterious Precinct 13 where she discovers that her new co-workers—including a cute technomage named Jack—are paranormals just like her. Now, Alex is being encouraged to use her ability to speak to the dead to solve crimes. And despite being in the middle of nowhere, Hughes County sure does have a lot of paranormal activity…

Alex Conner is liking her new job as county coroner in Pierre, South Dakota but she’s a bit more than bored. It’s been 3 weeks and she’s not had a body yet. When the cops do bring in a body she’s told not break the rib cage while doing the autopsy which of course is impossible. Actually one of the cops mentions magic as well but since Alex has, as she puts it, a complicated relationship with magic she chooses to ignore the cop. As she’s doing the autopsy not only is she attacked by a snake that comes out of the body but then the body reanimates and walks off. When she heads to the Chief of Police she expects to be thrown out and thought crazy but strangely he believes her and sends her to a place called Precinct 13.

Precinct 13 is part of the police but they are mostly magical beings. Alex has a hard time grasping the facts because she’s been told that all the times she thought she saw magical things that she was hallucinating. It all turns out to be true though and Alex soon gets involved in the case of the missing corpse as well as another one involving cows – hey, this is South Dakota!

The story tells us of Alex’s initiation into the magical community, the fact that she herself is magical and that her boyfriend, Valentine, isn’t who she thought he was. She is, however, still in love with him despite who he is and she discovers that he has more feelings for her than she thought.

The book starts off really good but I must admit that I was definitely confused when Alex started thinking about her back story. I actually stopped and had to look both on Goodreads and the authors website to see what number book this was in a series. I was surprised when I found that this was book 1 in a new series. While I eventually got all the info that made sense I have to say that that first part wasn’t my favorite.

As the story went on I got more into it all with all the many characters. I really liked the sense of humor that was dry and a bit self-effacing on Alex’s part, as well as her obvious intelligence. I liked that others in Precinct 13 were just as intelligent and that Alex wasn’t the only one who could figure things out.
As Urban Fantasy goes this was a decent read. It had lots of fantasy/paranormal characters and an interesting story. There was a bit of a romantic element between Alex and her boyfriend, Valentine, that was quite sweet but definitely nothing over the top. (FYI – no descriptive sex scenes.) I’ll be interested to see if Hallaway writes more stories set in Alex’s world.
 
Rating: 3.75 out of 5
You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place
This book is available from Berkley Trade. You can buy it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher for an honest review.


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One response to “Guest Review: Precinct 13 by Tate Hallaway

  1. I just read this last week. I am a fan of Tate’s previous witch/vampire series. This was a little darker.

    Like Tracey, I wasn’t thrilled with how the story started. It did feel like this should be book 2. The story for me felt jerky with lots of holes (what is the deal with her assistant?!?). Truthfully, I will not be looking out for book 2. If it just happened to be on the PICK ME shelf at the library, I’d probably pick it up though.

    I’d give it 3 stars, an ok read.

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