Published: October 18, 2022
Publisher: Gallery/ Saga Press
Series: Huntsmen #1
Genre: Fantasy, Mystery
Pages: 384 (Paperback)
My Rating: 4.5/5.0
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Synopsis:
Huntsmen, according to the Church, were damned, their blood unclean, unholy. Yet for Rosemary and Aaron Harker the Church was less important than being ready to stand against the Uncanny as not being prepared could lead to being dead.
The year is 1913. America—and the world—trembles on the edge of a modern age. Political and social unrest shift the foundations; technology is beginning to make its mark.
But in the shadows, things from the past still move. Things inhuman, uncanny.
And the Uncanny are no friend to humanity.
But when Aaron and Rosemary Harker go to investigate the suspicious death of a distant relative, what they discover could turn their world upside down—and change the Huntsmen forever
I totally loved this! It wasn’t exactly the book I was expecting because the synopsis on Goodreads for 2 of the 3 featured editions is completely wrong (Amazon is correct though). HOWEVER, I enjoyed the book immensely more than expected because it’s actually about monster hunters solving murders in New England in the early 1900s.
Rosemary and Aaron Harker are siblings who have taken over the family business – hunting down folkloric monsters that have developed a taste for humans. When the widow of a distant relative reaches out and asks for their help investigating his death they pack up and head for upstate New York where they find multiple unusual deaths and some questionable characters in town. They also encounter things that make them question long held beliefs held by the Huntsmen as a whole.
Rosemary and Aaron clearly have an interesting past and upbringing and based on hints dropped throughout the story, their mother had a traumatic death and their father was at fault. Rosemary is a strong, clever woman in a time when women were still largely expected to be quiet and obedient and often chafes at propriety. Aaron is often described as “fey” or a bit odd in terms of humor or even how he views one of their hunts and this is put off to a larger portion of fey blood in his veins. My favorite character might actually be their specially bred hound, Botheration (Bother for short) who is remarkably intelligent and astoundingly large. Bother tracks uncanny creatures and has some interesting gifts of his own that I won’t spoil here.
The mystery aspect was fascinating and as always, I love a good supernatural spin to any mystery. Uncanny Times was a great story that balanced character and plot development extremely well. At no point did I find the story too slow and in fact, wouldn’t have minded even more details about the characters’ pasts though I’m sure more details will be in the next installment. Overall, I was really pleased with this and would definitely recommend it to any fans of monster hunter type books (The Witcher, etc.) or for those folks like me who just love a good fantasy/mystery genre-bender!
Powder & Page 