Girls of Geek Book Review: Things to do in Denver When You're Un-Dead

Written by: Scotty

When working with a group of people for any surmountable amount of time, you have to decide if you can trust them or not.  Now most people have co-workers that are responsible for different aspects of the job that is being done and it is not a life or death situation.  At the Bureau of Supernatural Investigations, (BSI), the latter is the case.  A split second decision can make the difference in your life, or in your partners. 

Kal Hakala is in charge of a small group of agents at the BSI roaming field office that is now stationed in Denver, Colorado.  Due to some of the recent disturbances around the area, the bureau has sent him and his team in to investigate and dispose of any of the threats.  The BSI is a very tightly run little group of no more than fifty active agents at a time, along with fifty support members in the office.  Kal’s superior BB is keeping everything in check at the office level, trying to locate a new agent to take a recently fallen ones place and assigns her Kal’s unit.

Although Kal is the most tenured agent in the bureau, he is not very happy about receiving the new recruit without doing his research on the young woman.  Ariel McMillan, the new agent in question, has caught Kal’s eye, but knowing how short the life span is of the new ‘Green Pea’s’ is when it comes to field work, Kal is very tough on her right out of the gate.  What is the purpose of the BSI?  It is to eliminate a supernatural threat before it harms any of the normal people in the world.  The World Under is where the supernatural players live and thrive, but once they come up to the real world and start using their magic/powers, the BSI is in place to take them out.

Even though Kal employees a magician on his team and deals with a specter over the internet, he still gets surprised by what happens when he is not paying full attention.  Two new reports of magic have come in, and even though the team cannot identify immediately what was done, they fear that ghouls or zombies have been raised from a grave yard.  Keeping his team in check, Kal works with local law enforcement to find out anything that may have been suspicious about the bodies that are no longer in their graves.  When he discovers that the folks that were risen were wrestlers, he knows that something big is afoot, he and his team would be in for the battle of their lives.

Things to do in Denver When You’re Un-Dead deals with the supernatural, magic and what can be done when the two are combined.  Following Kal as he tries to keep his team safe, you find that he may be the most tortured of all.  With the loss of his sister to the Iku-Turso when he was a young boy, Kal has dedicated all of his time to the BSI to try and find a way to dispose of this threat while keeping his rage at bay.  With his supporting cast of Alex, his internet hacker and a few others on his team, he works endlessly to try to solve his next case.  The Organ Donor is working in Denver and leaving emptied bodies around and phoning them into the local police.  Looking deeper into the case, Kal and crew discover this person may be a magician using the killings as a cover up for something much more sinister. 

This is definitely a book to pick up if you are into crime dramas, zombies, vampires, ghouls, magic, character studies, and just down right fun.  With your lead having to make the tough decisions of who will stay, who will go, who will survive and who will not is the best way to have a story laid out.  With an appearance from his past, Kal is faced with more than his own demons, having to fight super powered ghouls, zombies and yes, even vampires that have been risen by the Organ Donor.  Having to keep his rage in check is where the book really clicks with me, as since when the job gets too hard, or Kal loses one of his team members, Kal has only one way to release his anger, and it is not on the sofa at a psychiatrist's office.  A real person faced with unreal situations makes for a fantastic story along with his one reason for staying alive…to avenge his sister’s death.  Happy reading and Stay Scared my friends. 

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