FINDER by Emma Bull

TOR, 1994

Orient has the talent to find things. Together with his Elf-partner, Tick-Tick, Orient uses his talent to stay out of trouble and to explore the borderlands created when the Elf-lands rejoined the human plane. When the police, in the person of attractive Detective Rico, ask for Orient's help tracking down a killer and a deadly drug, Orient wants to object--until Rico blackmailes him.

Once he gets involved in the murder and drug case, Orient can't let it go. Someone has unleashed something deadly on the borderland between human and elf spheres. The police seem unable to cope, or could they even be involved? Orient's unique talent should help, but only if someone knows what he is looking for. Without that knowledge, he is helpless. Meanwhile, a killing plague spreads from drug-taking humans to true-blood elves. Orient's entire culture is threatened.

Emma Bull (see all BooksForABuck.com reviews of novels by this author) has created a subtle mixture of action and character. The characters of Orient, Tick-Tick, and Rico are three-dimensional and damaged. The relationships and sexual tension between them apparent. The plague creates a ticking clock that increases the deadly pressure with each passing moment. Bordertown, torn between universes and where the science of neither plane really works, is virtually a character itself.

Novels about the return of farie and the interaction between humans and elf have become an important subgenre. In this field, Bull is a master.

Four Stars

Ready to buy it? Click the button: