cover image Thief of Midnight

Thief of Midnight

Catherine Butzen, Stark House (www.starkhousepress.com), $15.95 paper (228p) ISBN 978-1-933586-31-1

Butzen's strong debut livens up some common urban fantasy tropes with witty dialogue and fun monsters. After surviving an attack by a ghoul, Chicagoan Abby Marquise is recruited by the Society for the Security of Reality (SSR), which captures and kills supernatural creatures. Meanwhile, El Cucuy, leader of the looseknit group of bogeymen known as the Family, launches a plan to kidnap thousands of children from around the world. Of the monsters, only Likho and L'uomo Nero are willing to try to stop him. Butzen's character development often falters, but the assorted bogeymen make for genuinely interesting supernatural villains, and the power struggles within their group—as well as their personal struggles for identity even as they fear to display human traits—keep this otherwise bythe-numbers tale moving. (July)