The Thirteeth Child (Section 13 series #1) – J L O’Faolain

[PaperMoon]

Since my obsession with Mercedes Lackey titles started twenty years ago, I’ve always liked urban fantasy. So I was very, very pleased to find a gay urban fantasy series from J L O’Faolain. Book one in this series introduces readers to a member of the celtic sidhe/faie immortals - Tuulois MacColewyn (Cole for short), transplanted to a modern day urban New York setting (except I found this NY almost surreal in description). Why surreal? It would appear that living almost unseen and unrecognised amongst our Noo-yorkers are trolls, brownies, pixies – every cute and ghoulish version of the fey folk one can imagine.

The book starts with Cole turning a few gunslinger missions against human as well as fey evil-doers, using his magical weaponry / inherent magical powers – it helps with the rent. His recent past catches up with him when an ex-lover NYPD Detective James Corhagen uses runic magic to summons Cole for a consultation at a puzzling crime scene. Desperately trying to ignore the tensions between himself and James (who abandoned Cole for a life complete with wife and kids), the two men lock heads to work out what evil is behind a series of gruesome and horrific murders where the victims’ children are abducted and taken away for goodness-knows-what fate.

Their search leads them to abandoned files from a secret branch of the NYPD set up to investigate all paranormal and black magic crimes. A motley crew eventually join Cole and James in their quest to stop this malevolent baddie with powers more than equal to Cole’s – a ghost, Cole’s housemate with spiritualist leanings, James’ distant, suspicious but ruggedly attractive superior officer Vallimun, a young female red-cloaked renegade with a basket full of explosive devices. All sorts of evil forces are thrown against them … that whole un-dead scarecrow army chasing them through the halls of the hospital sent my heart into overdrive and the goosebumps – wow!

The showdown at the ending was suitably explosive, but not before a couple of super-sexy man-on-man erotic segments involving not just James and Cole but Vallimun as well! I have to say O’Faolain write erotica up there with the best of them. This was quite a surprise for me since I was not expecting that in an urban fantasy novel – although I really should have clued on with the book’s cover-art LOL! Cole finds that evil lurks far closer to home than he imagines and despite his thousands-year-old psyche, he is not so jaded with life that he can't share in the common human experiences of loss, grief, hurt, betrayal and love. This first book ends with Cole being offered a permanent position in the newly reopened paranormal NYPD Section 13 unit, headed by the gorgeous Inspector Vallimun, who is head-hunting Cole for more than professional reasons.

I was engrossed with the story from the very start and O’Faolain has to be congratulated for giving us such memorable characters - the author does a fantastic job at combining the urban crime investigation-procedural and fantasy genres. The plot is tight and fast-paced, the dialogue gritty and realistic, the fantasy elements highly intriguing and of course there’s the hawt man-on-man action as a bonus.

[Mercedes]

I think this will be the next Fae books I read. They sounds like something I would enjoy.

[Octobercountry]

Immortal sidhe Tuulois MacColewyn is living rough. After nearly two centuries of life as one of Faerie Queen Titania's prized wolves and a handful of years as a Roaring Twenties mob boss's favorite enforcer, he's now exiled to New York, making rent doing dirty jobs for other fey outcasts. He used to consult on the occult for Detective James Corhagen at the NYPD, but since their highly combustible friendship burned itself out a year ago, Cole hasn't heard from him.

All that changes when Corhagen summons Cole right out of his shower and into the middle of a crime scene. The NYPD is facing a rash of messy black-magic murders, complete with exploding hearts and very little forensic evidence, not to mention the sinister disappearance of several half-fey children. However hard he tries to deny it—and his inconvenient attraction to the sidhe—Corhagen needs Cole’s help. A persistent police inspector rounds out the team, but when their investigation comes too close to the truth, suddenly it’s their lives on the line. With a powerful killer on the loose, Cole, James, and Inspector Vallimun must race against time to stop the monster out to claim the thirteenth child.

I thought the premise of this one sounded quite interesting, but I'm afraid the execution wasn't entirely to my taste. The story was a bit more violent than what I'm accustomed to. And while this story lays the foundation for a love triangle, it really couldn't be called a romance. (Plus, the two sex scenes tended toward the "ewwwwww" end of the spectrum, in my opinion---not very appealing!)

Still, I'm curious enough to know what comes next, and I'll continue on with the second book to see how things develop. I'd recommend this one to those who enjoy the grittier type of paranormal stories.