Dead Letter Day by Eileen Rendahl
Series: Messenger #3
Published by ACE
Published on: March 1st, 2011
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Werewolves
Pages: 304
Format: Paperback
Source: Borrowed
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Melina Markowitz, messenger for the underworld, delivers the goods for the supernatural beings in our midst—no questions asked. It’s more than a job; it’s a mission. Safety be damned.
Melina’s missing friend, Paul, could just be taking a little werewolf “me time,” but her investigation yields something more sinister. Suspicions first fall on Paul’s wolf-pack rival. But that wouldn’t explain the sudden windstorms rattling Melina’s nerves—or the ominous, shrieking crows that keep appearing.
Dead Letter Day will give you a case of the warm and fuzzies. First of all, its plot centers predominantly around the werewolves in Melina’s life. Secondly, it comes on the heels of the touchy-feely climax in book two in which Melina recognized just how much her mother, witch, vampire, roommate, and boyfriend mattered in her life. I continue to like the voice of this narrator. Seeing as it is all first person, all the time and undoubtedly so, you kind of have to like the voice if you’re going to hang with the narrative.
The finale in its paeans to other mythologies comes across very hokey and the plot does seem to peter out before some critical loose ends are tied up. This book also marks a sharp deviation from Melina’s role as Messenger. Although some packages are delivered, they are in no way the main attraction. But then again that may be part of the joke that Melina should be Messenging but instead ends up snooping.
This brings me back to the central problem/pleasure of this series (that is if you can get the joke): “it doesn’t work”. Our protag should have powers and she sort of does but they are somewhere in between that of her human boyfriend and vamp/were friends. In other words, she can sort of handle herself in a fight/sort of sense funky vibes. More importantly, she should not have a job considering respective mail departments in any supernatural community are more than capable of delivering voodoo dolls and the like. So long as it is packaged, I don’t see the issue. I don’t care if you are a barbarian with a wopping axe that should go to a troll. Do you not have couriers in your court? Can you not have a nearby wizard teleport it cross country?
As you can see, there are so many holes that can be punched into this imagined career. But, once again, I admire the boldness of any author to produce supernatural roles and such that we have not yet seen. And anyways, one can tell Melina is written with a strong human voice and that is in the end paradoxically what counts for fantastical fiction.
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  My Review |
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| Recommended: | For the feels |
| Like this, like that: | The OSI series by Jes Battis and the Nola O’ Grady series by Katherine Kerr |
