Synopsis: If the murderer you’re tracking is a vampire, then you want a vampire detective.
Just maybe not this one.
It’s not that Jack Valentine is bad at her job. The youngest member of Oxford’s Seekers has an impressive track record, but she also has an impressive grudge against the local baron, Killian Drake.
When a human turns up dead on May Morning, she’s determined to pin the murder on Drake. The problem is that none of the evidence points to him. Instead, it leads Jack into a web of conspiracy involving the most powerful people in the country, people to whom Jack has no access. But she knows someone who does.
To get to the truth, Jack will have to partner up with her worst enemy. As long as she can keep her cool, Drake will point her to the ringleaders, she’ll find the murderer and no one else will have to die.
Body bags on standby.
May Day is the first book in Josie Jaffrey’s Seekers series, an urban fantasy series set in Oxford, England.
Publication date: 9th July 2020
Publisher: Silver Sun Books
"You can't control a problem if you don't even acknowledge it exists."
In May Day Jaffrey has created a whole world hidden in our society, a society of vampires that exists parallel to the human society, it even has a hierarchy, as it's called in the book, so well-structured and organized that it has no fissures, even those who live out of their laws have a name and are prosecuted by the Seekers, a sort of vampire-police.
As I was reading it, I kept thinking that I’d love to see this book as a TV series or a film, because the characters, the plot and the whole society is so well-created that would make it an intriguing and addictive series.
Jaffrey's writing is very descriptive and fast paced, which makes you fly through the pages while enjoying a good mystery with some romantic drama in the midst. It also has a lot of open plots, creating a spider web that’s not at all a mess, quite the contrary, it's really well thought and knotted, just as if it all was real and Jack was just narrating her life, writing it down as it happens.
"You can be whoever you want to be, Valentine. They're all you."
I appreciate the fact that May Day is a diverse book, including some characters of colour clearly described so there’s no doubts about their skin colour, and also LGBT+ representation, including the main character Jack, who’s bisexual, and her companion (sweet, wise) Cam, who’s homosexual, among others.
I’ve ended up giving it four stars over five because the last 100 pages (saving the last 30) were a bit slow, they kept repeating some parts of the story you already know by heart because they’ve mentioned them a thousand times before, but the mystery and the whole plot that develops from it is really well thought and can definitely lead to new books in this series, which I can’t wait to read.
"You can't control how other people feel, any more than you can control how you feel yourself."
To finish, there are a couple of things I can’t left unsaid. The first one is that unexpected plot twist close to the end of the book that solves the case and gives a new definition to all the events, but still keeps some lose ends, creating an intriguing cliffhanger, which hopefully will be solved in the next books. And the second and last one is that the final chapter was really exciting and made my heart race a bit, it was a little act of rebellion form the main character that I’m sure will lead to biggest consequences in the upcoming books, which I’m looking forward already!
Thanks to Victoria Eaton, Josie Jaffrey's publicist, for sending me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Genre: urban fantasy, paranormal, mystery, thriller, lgbt+.
Trigger warnings: abuse (physical, for sexual pleasure), autopsy, blood (including blood-drinking), dead bodies, drugging, forensic investigation, gore, injuries (described), miscarriage/abortion (brief mention), misogyny, murder, profanity, rape (discussed), sexual assault (discussed), stalking (discussed), suicide (brief mention), violence.
About the author: Josie is the author of nine self-published novels plus short stories. She is currently working on a range of fantasy and historical fiction projects (both adult and YA), for which she is seeking representation. Ultimately, she hopes to be a hybrid author, both traditionally- and self-published.
After finishing her degree in Literae Humaniores (Classics) at the University of Oxford, Josie wasn't sure what to do with her life.
She slogged through a brief stint working for an investment bank in London during the 2008 credit crunch, then converted to law and qualified as a solicitor specialising in intellectual property. She worked at a law firm for five years before moving to a UK-based international publisher in 2016. Whilst she loved law, in the end she didn't love it quite as much as writing, which she now does almost full time.
Josie lives in Oxford with her husband and two cats (Sparky and Gussie), who graciously permit human cohabitation in return for regular feeding and cuddles. The resulting cat fluff makes it difficult for Josie to wear black, which is largely why she gave up being a goth. Although the cats are definitely worth it, she still misses her old wardrobe.
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