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The Poe Detective Agency #1
A True Story from a Parallel Universe
An Urban Fantasy with humor set in a parallel universe that is familiar and surprising.
Romeo Moon is a Poe Detective who has been trained to handle any number of villains--including supernaturals-- such as gods, goddesses, vampires, zombies, angels, witches, demons, devils, abominable snowmen and women and various other fantastical and ordinary creatures that give into the lure of criminal enterprise. But there is one type of villain he hasn’t been trained to fight—the ruthless rich man who has the magic of money on his side. At first the rich man hires assassins to kill Romeo. When the assassins fail, the rich man shows he believes in the motto ‘try try again” and does on numerous occasions.
As Romeo investigates, he begins to realize that there is more at stake than just his life, though naturally his life is of considerable importance to him. He has allies: his undertaker best friend, his zombie girlfriend, and a certain famous three-headed dog. But the power of money can buy many things-- including but not limited to armies of the living and the dead, policemen, corrupt city officials, flamethrowers, and horned demons. There’s a battle coming and Romeo Moon will be right square in the middle of it.
Romeo Moon is a Poe Detective who has been trained to handle any number of villains--including supernaturals-- such as gods, goddesses, vampires, zombies, angels, witches, demons, devils, abominable snowmen and women and various other fantastical and ordinary creatures that give into the lure of criminal enterprise. But there is one type of villain he hasn’t been trained to fight—the ruthless rich man who has the magic of money on his side. At first the rich man hires assassins to kill Romeo. When the assassins fail, the rich man shows he believes in the motto ‘try try again” and does on numerous occasions.
As Romeo investigates, he begins to realize that there is more at stake than just his life, though naturally his life is of considerable importance to him. He has allies: his undertaker best friend, his zombie girlfriend, and a certain famous three-headed dog. But the power of money can buy many things-- including but not limited to armies of the living and the dead, policemen, corrupt city officials, flamethrowers, and horned demons. There’s a battle coming and Romeo Moon will be right square in the middle of it.
256 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 30, 2020
277 people are currently reading
753 people want to read
About the author
Brian Yansky
40 books140 followersI write supernatural horror suspense comedy (a mix of dark humor, quirky, silly humor and satire.), .
I love many kinds of stories. I especially love off-beat, quirky stories with unusual characters and settings that have a sense of wonder and humor.…Falling in love with stories saved me from a life of crime (I’m only sort of kidding; they did save me from something). A lot of my main characters are adopted. Like them, I was adopted. I seem to write often about identity. I live in Austin, Texas. I have no horses or cowboy hats. I do have a 125 pound sheep dog. I’ve taught college, been a bartender and waiter and am now a full-time writer.
I've had five novels traditionally published and something like fifteen independently published. My independently published series, Strangely Scary Funny, is, by far, my most popular.
I like writing most anything. My grocery lists are excellent.
I love many kinds of stories. I especially love off-beat, quirky stories with unusual characters and settings that have a sense of wonder and humor.…Falling in love with stories saved me from a life of crime (I’m only sort of kidding; they did save me from something). A lot of my main characters are adopted. Like them, I was adopted. I seem to write often about identity. I live in Austin, Texas. I have no horses or cowboy hats. I do have a 125 pound sheep dog. I’ve taught college, been a bartender and waiter and am now a full-time writer.
I've had five novels traditionally published and something like fifteen independently published. My independently published series, Strangely Scary Funny, is, by far, my most popular.
I like writing most anything. My grocery lists are excellent.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 30 reviews
December 13, 2021
For the most part, I enjoyed this story despite the really bad writing. There was the usual slew of misspellings, along with missing/wrong words and sections that were really repetitive. The writing style was overly simplistic, with a lot of short and choppy sentences.
This was a fun story set in an interesting world. Brian Yansky is a better storyteller than he is a writer; I'd have DNF'd this one pretty quickly if I wasn't already caught up in the story. The ending felt a little rushed and was a little too neat, but I can get past that. There's a pretty good chance I read the rest of the series.
This was a fun story set in an interesting world. Brian Yansky is a better storyteller than he is a writer; I'd have DNF'd this one pretty quickly if I wasn't already caught up in the story. The ending felt a little rushed and was a little too neat, but I can get past that. There's a pretty good chance I read the rest of the series.
September 17, 2020
I won this book in a goodreads drawing.
In a world much like our in the 1910's, only there's magic and monsters, a boy becomes a detective, and eventually tries to stop an industrialist from taking over the world, and find out who killed his father. Written in sort of Dime Novel fashion, every chapter has a heading, and all. One exception is that there are sex scenes.
Not bad for folks who like steampunk and the like.
In a world much like our in the 1910's, only there's magic and monsters, a boy becomes a detective, and eventually tries to stop an industrialist from taking over the world, and find out who killed his father. Written in sort of Dime Novel fashion, every chapter has a heading, and all. One exception is that there are sex scenes.
Not bad for folks who like steampunk and the like.
September 29, 2020
I almost didn't write a review, because I wasn't sure what to say about this book- it didn't break my heart or open my mind to some new wisdom. But it did entertain me fully. The day I picked it up I neglected to do anything useful, including sleep, because I couldn't put it down. I was SO tired the next day. And when I was done, I immediately tried to get the sequel, but it wasn't released yet! I honestly would have probably just picked up and continued if I could have. There were some editing issues in my Kindle edition (like the word though when it should have been through, stuff like that), but it' wasn't a big deal.
Some reasons I liked it include: female characters that are badass, mythical monsters, a bisexual teenage boy, a character with birth parents and *real* parents, characters that are realistically complex (not all, but the main ones), and a story that has blurry good guy/bad guy lines.
I did not love that the story is riddled with guns, but I accepted it as a way that this parallel universe is.
Some reasons I liked it include: female characters that are badass, mythical monsters, a bisexual teenage boy, a character with birth parents and *real* parents, characters that are realistically complex (not all, but the main ones), and a story that has blurry good guy/bad guy lines.
I did not love that the story is riddled with guns, but I accepted it as a way that this parallel universe is.
April 3, 2021
1/5
There was so much potential here, the premise sounded absolutely amazing and all throughout the book the idea was so appealing but the execution was awful. The writing was really bad yet I kept reading because the idea behind it was so interesting.
I liked the paranormal elements, the different creatures and magic users and all the laws surrounding them, it was so damn interesting. I also liked Carlos because I'm always a fan of a bisexual sassy character, especially when they have magic tied with death. But your imagination had to work really hard to make these characters fleshed out and believable. The dialogue was static and not at all how anyone would speak, and there was no inner thoughts with any of the characters.
The action and plot didn't flow at all, scenes jumped constantly and made little to no sense.
It was all very one dimensional and not fleshed out enough, but damn is the idea good.
There was so much potential here, the premise sounded absolutely amazing and all throughout the book the idea was so appealing but the execution was awful. The writing was really bad yet I kept reading because the idea behind it was so interesting.
I liked the paranormal elements, the different creatures and magic users and all the laws surrounding them, it was so damn interesting. I also liked Carlos because I'm always a fan of a bisexual sassy character, especially when they have magic tied with death. But your imagination had to work really hard to make these characters fleshed out and believable. The dialogue was static and not at all how anyone would speak, and there was no inner thoughts with any of the characters.
The action and plot didn't flow at all, scenes jumped constantly and made little to no sense.
It was all very one dimensional and not fleshed out enough, but damn is the idea good.
September 1, 2020
Doggone good
When an author starts a story set in a parallel universe by explaining that the story is set in a parallel universe, it is usually not a good sign. In this case, we get told several times, in fact. Uh, dude, is this set in a parallel universe? That's not made very clear! :-) Despite this ominous start, I kept reading. I'm glad I did.
The writing is done in a dry, slightly irreverent tone similar to, but more modern than, Dickens. It gives the book an informal atmosphere that is endearing. There was nothing that made me laugh out loud, but the somewhat amused, slightly sarcastic tone added a humorous background and made it a fun, easy read.
Another reviewer complained about grammatical errors. These are usually a pet peeve of mine. This is far from the worst book I've read on that score. There were a few errors that rose to the annoying level, but nothing really jarring to the flow of the prose. It's obvious, though, that the proofreader got bored and in more of a hurry as the book got closer to the end. I've begun to expect that with ebooks, although I still don't like it.
Generally, I'm not fond of stories where the bad guy is included in the rising action -- especially when the villain is as flat as this one. More than once I found myself wishing somebody would hurry up and kill him and put him out of my misery. This bad guy is not even someone we love to hate, he's just damned annoying. He is driven by greed alone, and it's all he's capable of feeling. What's the point of switching to his point of view when it's simply "Mine! Gimme! Mine, mine mine!" Keep characters like this in the background, or give them at least a little depth. You want a character, not a caricature.
Overall I'd call this a good book. I deducted one star, mostly for the flat villain. Still, I'm looking forward to the next in the series.
-Matt
When an author starts a story set in a parallel universe by explaining that the story is set in a parallel universe, it is usually not a good sign. In this case, we get told several times, in fact. Uh, dude, is this set in a parallel universe? That's not made very clear! :-) Despite this ominous start, I kept reading. I'm glad I did.
The writing is done in a dry, slightly irreverent tone similar to, but more modern than, Dickens. It gives the book an informal atmosphere that is endearing. There was nothing that made me laugh out loud, but the somewhat amused, slightly sarcastic tone added a humorous background and made it a fun, easy read.
Another reviewer complained about grammatical errors. These are usually a pet peeve of mine. This is far from the worst book I've read on that score. There were a few errors that rose to the annoying level, but nothing really jarring to the flow of the prose. It's obvious, though, that the proofreader got bored and in more of a hurry as the book got closer to the end. I've begun to expect that with ebooks, although I still don't like it.
Generally, I'm not fond of stories where the bad guy is included in the rising action -- especially when the villain is as flat as this one. More than once I found myself wishing somebody would hurry up and kill him and put him out of my misery. This bad guy is not even someone we love to hate, he's just damned annoying. He is driven by greed alone, and it's all he's capable of feeling. What's the point of switching to his point of view when it's simply "Mine! Gimme! Mine, mine mine!" Keep characters like this in the background, or give them at least a little depth. You want a character, not a caricature.
Overall I'd call this a good book. I deducted one star, mostly for the flat villain. Still, I'm looking forward to the next in the series.
-Matt
August 20, 2020
kindle unlimited, none of his other books are, actually got on freebie day, has not put out A True Story from a Parallel Universe (The Poe Detective Agency #2), either, so having to go by just the 1 story in addition to none of any of his other books being ku.
Highly suggest proofreading/better proofing to get rid of the issues with wrong name being used, various grammatical issues, and places where it seems that the plot, literally, was lost or got confusing.
The differences in earth versus earth 2 were interesting, especially for someone who has even a little background in mythology, and lends believability to the beings and creatures inhabiting earth 2, though did read it twice, to get more of the story, unusual for me because do not have the time or wish to reread most things.
Highly suggest proofreading/better proofing to get rid of the issues with wrong name being used, various grammatical issues, and places where it seems that the plot, literally, was lost or got confusing.
The differences in earth versus earth 2 were interesting, especially for someone who has even a little background in mythology, and lends believability to the beings and creatures inhabiting earth 2, though did read it twice, to get more of the story, unusual for me because do not have the time or wish to reread most things.
November 23, 2020
A True Story from a Parallel Universe is a book I have mixed feelings about. I loved the world the author created and how well he managed to balance humor and serious moments. At the same time, I found the plot to be rather average and the villain to be a disappointment. The novel also needs some edits to make reading more enjoyable. Still, the book is a fun, easy read and I did enjoy it in parts. I’m not sure if I’ll read future books in the series, but I’m not ruling that idea out. Overall, I’d say give this book a read if you’re looking for a fun read that happens in an interesting world.
My full review can be found here
My full review can be found here
January 18, 2021
Sometimes clever, sometimes sloppy...
...but the sloppy couldn't be overcome by the clever.
Many parts were silly, and in some places that was ok; but the worst part to be silly was the ending, which was silly and sloppy and definitely not as clever as the clever parts. Most of the characters were one dimensional and boring; except for the main character, Romeo, and his friend, Carlos, who were only vaguely more filled out. In all, a shabby story with weak characters, mish mashed world building, and high school English class level plotting, development, and complexity. It's only saving grace from a one star rating, were the few flashes of cleverness.
...but the sloppy couldn't be overcome by the clever.
Many parts were silly, and in some places that was ok; but the worst part to be silly was the ending, which was silly and sloppy and definitely not as clever as the clever parts. Most of the characters were one dimensional and boring; except for the main character, Romeo, and his friend, Carlos, who were only vaguely more filled out. In all, a shabby story with weak characters, mish mashed world building, and high school English class level plotting, development, and complexity. It's only saving grace from a one star rating, were the few flashes of cleverness.
July 19, 2022
Wanted to like this. Fun premise. And some of it was great, seemed really well-developed. But other aspects were weird, unattached to the story as a whole. The main character was flatter than Stanley; at first I thought it was going to be a bit of a Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy situation, but nope. I liked the dog. And the love interest, she was cool, although my opinion of her went down slightly when she became the love interest. She had no business being with lame-ass Romeo. Liked Carlos too, and even the concept of the detective agency was fun. It just didn't come together well for me.
August 17, 2020
I'm usually more of a sci-fi kind of guy but this was a lot of fun.
This book makes all of the monsters under your bed or on your closet a lot less scary. It's an adventure with a young up and coming detective who just can't seem to catch a break, until he does. Along the way you'll meet his friend and family and hopefully the love of his life. Leave reality behind and enjoy a jaunt through a parallel universe. Just remember to pack your sense of humor.
This book makes all of the monsters under your bed or on your closet a lot less scary. It's an adventure with a young up and coming detective who just can't seem to catch a break, until he does. Along the way you'll meet his friend and family and hopefully the love of his life. Leave reality behind and enjoy a jaunt through a parallel universe. Just remember to pack your sense of humor.
November 18, 2022
A Very Enjoyable Story
My dad’s name was Romeo, so at first I found the hero’s name odd and a bit jarring. But it didn’t take long for me to get beyond that , even though it was unexpected. I think my favorite part is Cerberus. I also like the inclusion of the Egyptian gods. I know it is strange but if I had to describe this book without giving anything away I would call it a cozy horror story with a happy ending!
My dad’s name was Romeo, so at first I found the hero’s name odd and a bit jarring. But it didn’t take long for me to get beyond that , even though it was unexpected. I think my favorite part is Cerberus. I also like the inclusion of the Egyptian gods. I know it is strange but if I had to describe this book without giving anything away I would call it a cozy horror story with a happy ending!
September 12, 2025
a really different and warped novel
I am absolutely positive Mr. Yansky agrees with my title.
This was a thoroughly enjoyable story about heroes and villains and a blender full of various myths and legends.
I really liked the flow of the story. Romeo was not the expected hero. I loved Cerebus. Carlos and Julia were great.
If you like slightly warped stories, this is definitely for you. I cannot wait to read book 2.
I am absolutely positive Mr. Yansky agrees with my title.
This was a thoroughly enjoyable story about heroes and villains and a blender full of various myths and legends.
I really liked the flow of the story. Romeo was not the expected hero. I loved Cerebus. Carlos and Julia were great.
If you like slightly warped stories, this is definitely for you. I cannot wait to read book 2.
June 3, 2021
Fun Timely Hilarious
I really enjoyed the book. An excellent metaphor for the USA. The characters are true to life except when they aren’t.I’m not usually into magic but I’ll take this kind of tongue-in$cheek magic every day. I’m getting the next book as soon as I finish this review.
I really enjoyed the book. An excellent metaphor for the USA. The characters are true to life except when they aren’t.I’m not usually into magic but I’ll take this kind of tongue-in$cheek magic every day. I’m getting the next book as soon as I finish this review.
August 15, 2020
A gripping tale, a unique point of view
This parallel universe was just recognizable enough to be familiar but different enough to be surprising! I enjoyed the story and look forward to book #2.
This parallel universe was just recognizable enough to be familiar but different enough to be surprising! I enjoyed the story and look forward to book #2.
October 17, 2021
It had me at the title, but then I started reading, letting aside the fact that it has a couple of continuity mistakes, i simply can't understand how the rumor of someone being a werewolf can go on for months when in the same book they explain a werewolf can't control to shapeshift with a Full moon
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 29, 2025
Detective and the villain
An interesting first book in the Poe Detective Agency series. The characters were interesting, loved Cerberus, and the interactions between the characters. A unique story.
An interesting first book in the Poe Detective Agency series. The characters were interesting, loved Cerberus, and the interactions between the characters. A unique story.
August 22, 2025
Romeo Moon is a Poe detective with a secret, he is a shape shifter, when he is framed for murder and top of assassins hit lists, he has to rely on his best friend, new girl friend and a famous dog from hell. Interesting start to a series.
August 31, 2020
*3.5 Stars
This was a light and humorous read that I got from Kindle Unlimited. There were some issues that should have been caught in further editing, but I enjoyed the read overall.
This was a light and humorous read that I got from Kindle Unlimited. There were some issues that should have been caught in further editing, but I enjoyed the read overall.
October 1, 2020
Entertaining and engaging
You will not want to put this down. The story is vivid and full of humour. The characters are thoroughly enjoyable.
You will not want to put this down. The story is vivid and full of humour. The characters are thoroughly enjoyable.
October 3, 2020
new to this author, a Goodreads giveaway win .. not my normal genre to read ...but i really enjoy it ... love the cover. i wanna read more ... love finding newbie authors to me. fun times!!
October 26, 2020
Not into politics or sexuality
Too many references of bisexuality for me. Almost like the author had a political agenda regarding his stance. I was also quite bored reading it.
Too many references of bisexuality for me. Almost like the author had a political agenda regarding his stance. I was also quite bored reading it.
January 3, 2021
Excellent twisty turns monstery start
Seductive smart and funny mystery and noir and fun with dogs! The weave is weird and fun and the relationships have some heft
Seductive smart and funny mystery and noir and fun with dogs! The weave is weird and fun and the relationships have some heft
January 2, 2022
Quite fun
I enjoyed all the characters and the troubles that the had. Also the blending of mythologies that made this story work.
I enjoyed all the characters and the troubles that the had. Also the blending of mythologies that made this story work.
April 18, 2025
Cute
I adored the people in this book very muchy can't wait to get the next one. All the twists and turns.
I adored the people in this book very muchy can't wait to get the next one. All the twists and turns.
May 9, 2025
Narrative style actually detracted from this book. It was choppy and disjointed to a remarkable degree....
May 13, 2025
Good Story. Has potential to be a very good series.
Bit choppy and some of the characters need fleshing out.
Worth the read.
Bit choppy and some of the characters need fleshing out.
Worth the read.
June 10, 2025
Moving
I like the way he writes. Simple, easy to understand. Fun, read it in a day. A mini vacation for me..
I like the way he writes. Simple, easy to understand. Fun, read it in a day. A mini vacation for me..
September 10, 2025
Fun and Enjoyable!
This book was what I needed. Magical supernatural, fantasy. I couldn't put it down. I'm so ready to start the next book in the trilogy.
This book was what I needed. Magical supernatural, fantasy. I couldn't put it down. I'm so ready to start the next book in the trilogy.
July 17, 2021
A little bizarre but not enough character development!
Displaying 1 - 29 of 30 reviews