Savannah Paranormal Detective Agency 1 & 2

Patrick Abbott’s The Savannah Paranormal Detective Agency is a riotous urban fantasy comedy mystery set in Savannah, filled with ridiculous adventures, featuring a lawyer who thinks he is a Haitian zombie after a bad business trip, a ghost stuck in purgatory, and a self-assured 1920s vampire who can’t seem to give up her parasitic lifestyle. It is a sheer delight to read, an uproarious laugh from beginning to end, an engaging mix of horror-related tropes and some of the freshest dialogue I have heard in a long time. Debra is by far the most impressive character in The Savannah Paranormal Detective Agency . Abbott creates a larger-than-life personality, full of contradictions, with some of the sharpest dialogue I have read in a while. Her reckless bravado and unrelenting self-confidence balance out Max, the straight face of the series, who has to narrate some of the most ludicrous adventures, featuring Oz-style courtroom magic and a nuclear-mutant supervillain known as the Uranium Killer. At the same time, Debra’s wit and humor are not as shallow as one might expect from a self-absorbed vampire at the height of the Roaring Twenties; her interactions with Max provide the narration with much-needed emotional depth, particularly when it comes to Fred’s redemption arc. Reading The Savannah Paranormal Detective Agency is an uproarious laugh, a hilarious satire of the urban fantasy genre, which manages to subvert a handful of tropes while playing by most of them. Abbott populates Savannah’s streets with talking zombies, a Gullah-accented ex-con who runs a local Hoodoo shop, and dozens of other bizarre creatures and monsters, all brought to life with equal parts verve and a touch of specificity. The dialogue-driven writing keeps the action brisk, and the emotional center of the story, Fred’s journey, provides a much-needed heart to the otherwise goofy proceedings. The Savannah Paranormal Detective Agency is an entertaining debut novel for fans of the urban fantasy genre, full of wacky adventures and broad comedic relief. It is similar to the works of Jim Butcher or Kevin Hearne but has its unique flavor and charm, thanks to its focus on broad humor and unique settings. I think it is safe to say that the second installment will provide just as much fun.