Hell and High Water

English (Death’s Executioner) launches her Fae Fatales series with an immersive urban fantasy that reunites a fae detective trio in modern London to solve a disappearance. Fashion designer Fionn, a selkie, or shape-shifting seal woman, is distressed when one of her fellow selkie models is found dead in the Thames and surprised to hear from siren Tai, her estranged partner from the secretive Fae Fatales, a group that disbanded 80 years ago after a disastrous event during WWII. Tai, who became a rock star in her post-Fatale years, contacts Fionn because Tai’s roommate Mearil, another selkie, has vanished. It’s too great a coincidence, leading Fionn and Tai to fear that selkies are being taken by someone stealing selkies’ sealskins to control them. Fionn and Tai agree to get the Fatales back together to investigate, which means recruiting Daix, a diminutive imp with a mean streak and volatile disposition. English propels the trio’s quest through the gritty streets of London, to pubs, elite clubs, and the city’s dark underworld as the Fatales question a bevy of magical creatures. The investigation creates some suspense and the tenacious fae trio are easy to root for. It’s standard urban fantasy fare, but fun and well-executed. (Self-published)