A review by whenjessreads
Blood and Moonlight by Erin Beaty

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

The background in this book was so surprising and unique - MC Catrin is the orphaned employee of an architect, in charge of literally clambering up the sides of buildings to check the integrity of the scaffolding. One night she witnesses a murder while hanging onto the side of the Sanctum - the city’s holy building - and the story rapidly evolves into a fast-paced murder mystery and search for a serial killer. Amongst all that, Catrin is desperately trying to hide her own secret from the highly religious populace:
that she seems to have supernatural gifts granted to her in the moonlight.

This book felt a little disjointed. I haven’t read very many fantasy thrillers, but the fantasy side and the thriller side didn’t always seem to mesh, like I was reading two books side by side. Regardless, I enjoyed both sides! Though the setting is medieval-ish, the murder investigations were very similar to modern behavioural profiling, and the lead investigator felt very Sherlock-ish… I literally die for any Sherlock-esque characters (case in point, Gregory House and the Doctor. JUST LET ME LOVE YOU).

I was second guessing everyone’s intentions all the way to the very end (maybe I’m just not great at puzzles, but it was a surprise to me!), and I really appreciated the mental illness rep as clearly separate from the specific madness of a killer.

There was a little romance…. I wasn’t particularly interested, as per usual 😅. But I didn’t think it was excessive or took over the other parts of the story. Some parts dragged a little, the MC seemed a bit juvenile at times, and overall it seemed like there might have been a bit too much to fit in the one book - I believe this is being made into a duology now? Which probably would have been a good idea from the start.

Regardless, this was a fun story, I enjoyed the writing, and I got my fix of thriller and fantasy in one go.
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