Book 25 Dead Eye

 Dead Eye by Alyssa Day fulfilled the category “Book with a Tiger on the Cover or in the Title” for the PopSugar 2022 Reading Challenge. The novel features a weretiger.

Let me just ask: Where were these books when I finished the Sookie Stackhouse books? I read all the Sookie books, though I might have missed a short story here or there. I really enjoyed them as a fun read without annoying high concepts but with lots of magic and monsters. Ms. Day’s series about Dead End, FL, has many of the same elements. I’ll be honest, I like her main heroine better.

Tess works at a pawnshop in Dead End. She inherited half the store from its previous owner. The other half will go to Jack Shepherd if they can ever find him. Jeremiah, the former owner of the pawnshop, was found dead on the store’s back steps, and the sheriff never solves his murder. When Jack finally comes home, another body is found at the store. Tess’s world is becoming more dangerous by the minute. (Through some research, I’ve discovered Jack is a character in previous Alyssa Day books—The Warriors of Poseidon. I’ve added them also to my TBR.)

Tess is a great character. She’s down to earth with practical skills and wants a normal life. She’s funny, smart, and can see how you die if you touch her. Good thing it only happens the first time you make contact. When a second body is left for Tess, she and Jack work together to solve the murders and some other mysterious events on top. As the story moves forward, Tess realizes she’s in the center of a dangerous situation with were animals, witches, and murder. It doesn’t help that the long-lost weretiger is sexy, compassionate, and a great protector. Oh, and handsome, did I mention that?

The story was light, fun, sexy, and compelling to read. It had a small-town feel, and after only one book, I want to know everyone’s story in the town. Again, I likened it to the Sookie books or, even better, Charlaine Harris’s Midnight, Texas books which feature characters from several of her series and a special pawnshop.

Paranormal books with vampires and shifters ebb and flow in popularity. Honestly, after this one book, I’m ready to binge all the Tiger Eye Mystery books regardless of whether weres are popular now or not. If a novel is well written and appeals to the reader, it doesn’t matter what’s trending.

I give Dead Eye by Alyssa Day Five Big Fluffy Tigers.