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What a hoot! “Dragon(e) Baby Gone” is a side-splitting, rollicking ride of urban fantasy mayhem – a glimpse into a world where illegal magic can at best be loosely controlled as “extra-planar” creatures, teeming with malevolence and greed, and aided by extraordinary powers, seep across the earthly planar divide and threaten the continued existence of the human race.

Diane Morris is an FBI Special Agent based in Jacksonville, Florida. Diane is shackled by her own unavoidable professional responsibility to the “Department of Intangible Assets”, and would love to live a “normal” life. Instead, by day (and often too, by night) Diane, on assignment, battles “elemental” creatures capable of harnessing devastating maelstroms of fire, water, and air, that all to often, are directed squarely at her own woefully-inadequate human form.

(Evil creatures aside, this reader was delighted to also meet Jericho – a faerie in the form of an intelligent and verbose black cat, with white markings, an unusually long tail, and a predilection for pizza and rapacious internet surfing).

The plot accelerates when Diane meet Archades, an actual “demon”, who, – despite the fact that he bakes buns, wears khakis and a Hawaiian shirt (after all, this is Jacksonville, Florida) and is forced to occupy the body of an arthritic middle-aged human – is immortal, a deadly killer, and relishes nothing more than a tasty treat of fresh (or decomposing) human brains.

For this reader, meeting with Archades for the first time had all the atmosphere of the best scenes of “Silence of the Lambs” – but oh, so much cooler. This demon is hilarious.

“I took a cinnamon bun from a demon, and God help me, it was delicious.”

As the two form an unavoidable “alliance” (of sorts), Diane embarks on a mission involving round-the-clock danger and destruction: evil wizards; fire-wielding “mephits”; and most terrifying of all, Ziraxariz – brood mother of the Black Dragons. Without giving the plot away (no spoilers here) it’s safe to say a very uncomfortable journey ensues for our hero and her new (and perhaps trusty) side-kick.

There is no respite for the reader, as things continue to heat up and Diane opines, “I could at least die on my feet like a professional”, until, as if out of nowhere, the author manages to pull a very satisfying ending out of his (flame-tarnished) hat.

I loved this book and hope there will be more coming with the terrific characters introduced here.

A great big thank you to the author for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my ow