Omen to this
Synopsis
In the world of the occult, new is never good.
As one of Copperton’s hardworking investigators, Lawrence Reed has seen it all: vampires, werewolves, warlocks and witches.
When a monstrous creature crawls from the corpse of a mutilated girl, Law is determined to find answers—with or without payment.
Ignoring advice to leave the mystery alone, he sets out to uncover the details of the girl’s death. But the deeper he digs, the more questions he unearths.
Can Law bring peace to the dead girl’s family? Or will his investigation open the door to far darker discoveries?
Only one certainty remains: monsters aren’t the only evil stalking the streets of Copperton.
Review
Quick note: I have now stopped giving number ratings to my reviews – I want my words to do the talking!
Parasitic Omens, a short novella introduction to the intriguing new gaslamp fantasy horror world of indie author Jessica McMinn (writer of the grimdark fantasy series Gardens of War and Wasteland) is one of those stories that, for a certain kind of nerd, tantalises with the comparisons. The author describes it as for fans of TV’s Supernatural and From Software’s cult classic video game, Bloodborne. As an uber fan of the first and someone who respects the vibe of the second while never having been good enough to master the gruelling game mechanics to actually play it, I was more excited than a rat who’s won a holiday in a cheese tower block. A read of the synopsis brought two more comps to mind: the Witcher (a game series I am good enough to play) and The Dresden Files, albeit a more eldritch version of the urban fantasy detective series. That’s a lot of great comparisons, and often with such things disappointment awaits. But boy has McMinn knocked this ball of body parts and viscera straight out of the haunted park.
The plot concerns the town of Copperton, an town of the occult and the monstrous in which the creature investigator and permanently broke Lawrence Reed plies his trade. When he’s faced with the mystery of a girl found dead in the forest with something previously undiscovered having crawled out of her, he decides, against the advice of his colleague, to proceed with the investigation, which threatens to take him to some pretty dark places and seriously violent ends.
The first thing to say is that this is a prime example of how to establish a vivid, grim, fleshed out world (the emphasis on flesh) in a short page length. From the grime of Lawrence’s and the population’s living conditions to the catalogue of creatures he’s investigated previously to the sense of doom-laden atmosphere that stalks this semi-forsaken land, this is wickedly efficient and impressive worldbuilding. I could really see myself riding around as Geralt of Riveria being told to investigate the presence at the local manor by a concerned peasant with just enough coin to hire a Witcher.
McMinn also leaves a mark with her protagonist. As any good noir/urban fantasy/mystery writer knows, there is something gold in the concept of a private eye character, on the edge of penniless, desperately needing that good-paying job while also wanting to do right by that moral instinct eating at him. It’s narrative heroin, but also easy to descend into cliché. McMinn steers it well into the path of complexity rather than caricature, and I was genuinely desperate for the long-suffering Lawrence to get his due. The subtle antagonistic-friendly push and pull of his relationship with the woman he procures jobs from is nicely done too, as is the appearance of a feisty, deftly written fae character who I can’t say much about with spoilers but I expect to become a firm fan favourite if we see this series blossom.
But many readers will be here for the horrors as well as the characters, and McMinn does not disappoint on these grounds either. Mutilated bodies are vividly described; hellish, eldritch creatures make haunting appearances, and the lingering sense of cosmic unease hangs over it all, with themes of the evils of humans as well as monsters ever-present. I desperately want to see what horrors McMinn has in her toolbox for future efforts—someone petition her for the next one to be a full-length novel (the use of “0.5” for the novella’s full description suggests my wish may be granted).
A manual for how to do a fantasy horror mystery right, Parasitic Omens is the eldritch-flavoured amalgamation of the Dresden Files and the Witcher you didn’t know you needed. I want a full length novel of this series more than I want the knees of a 25-year-old.
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