Dead on the Delta

4.5 *** - A bit spoilery

"Thanks for....thinking about me."
"I always think about you."

Dead on the Delta is set in Louisiana, after the mutations that changed fairies in to visible, nasty, human blood drinking machines. A bite by a fairy will make a normal person insane. Unless you are 5 percent of the population that is immune to fairy bites, like our heroine, Annabelle Lee (name scarily similar to Edgar Allen Poe's doomed Annabel Lee). Annabelle works for the government obtaining fairy samples, since she is immune. She's mostly a slacker - she doesn't care about herself very much, or her job very much. She is dating the hottest guy in town, an African-American, muscle bound hunk on the police force. His name is Cane Cooper, and he's all sorts of into Annabelle. Unfortunately, she is unable to commit to anything, and she feels very strongly that she's not worth anyone loving.

Annabelle has a checkered past (don't all UF heroines?). Her wealthy parents gave up on her when she was a teenager, her sister died and she blames herself, she had a terrible break up with the love of her life over sketchy circumstances, she dropped out of medical school even though she was at the top of her class, etc. She lives in very modest circumstances, forgets to eat most of the time, rides a bicycle, and, oh yeah - she's an alcoholic and she enjoys her sleeping pills, too. She is a gloriously messed up character, and I love her dearly for this. She believes she has a "habit" not an addiction. The drinking and pill popping are brought up in this story frequently, but it isn't a main focus of this book.

Annabelle is brought in by the local law enforcement to retrieve the body of a young girl who was murdered. The body was dumped outside of the iron-enforced town limits, and since Annabelle is immune, she had to move the body. She then begins a journey of helping find the murderer of this girl, with many interesting surprises along the way. Her boyfriend, Cane, is running this case, but the New Orleans branch of the FBI gets called in to help. Hitch and Stephanie show up to continue with the case. We find out that Hitch is Annabelle's long lost love-of-her-life. But guess what? He's shacking up with the hot FBI agent, Stephanie. He is judgmental and arrogant towards Annabelle for most of the book.

At one point, Cane forces Annabelle to make a decision - either they brake up or get married. She is unable to commit to anything, and as I previously mentioned, she is a remarkably broken person. Hitch and Annabelle broke up in a very bad way - he still doesn't know the truth of what happened to Annabelle. You can tell he is still in love with Annabelle, although clearly fighting it with every breath in his body. Cane is the reliable, full-of-love, safe choice for Annabelle. Which is why I am most definitely a Camp Hitch girl. There are too many emotions left at the end of this book to not think there will be future story lines with these two.

Annabelle is visited by a mysterious person who gives her a mysterious injection. The reader does not know the ramifications of this by the end of the book, although this is where the magic comes into play. Annabelle is poisoned, beaten, hidden in a basement, bitten by fairies, dealing with her wonderful boyfriend and her sexy ex, and still finds a way to go on. She is always picking herself off and trying to do the right thing. This makes her a very compelling character, in my opinion.

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

This is a super urban fantasy police procedural

After being a mosquito size harmless species that adults assumed were mythological, the fairies changed. They became human blood seekers biting mortals. The Fey toxin leaves 75% of the humans insane; 10% physically misshapen before dying; and another 10% instantly dead. The remaining populace contains immunity, but so far no one knows why.

Following Katrina, New Orleans has become a breeding ground for the fairies. This does not prevent Fairy Control and Containment evidence collector Annabelle Lee from riding her bike and doing her job at often horrific crime scenes. Annabelle is one of lucky ones who are immune to the fairies toxin. She works with police detective Cane Cooper on the murder of a six year old girl just outside the fairie levees surrounding her town of Donaldson. Also inexplicably on the case is her former boyfriend and FBI Agent who should not be involved.

This is a super urban fantasy police procedural that intelligently extracts from real life to make the case of a Fey infestation. For instance, the Louisiana Governor is running for reelection on his hard on Fey crime platform. Although readers never learn what caused the Fairie plague, the fast-paced story line is action-packed as Cooper and Lee supported by others investigate gruesome murder on the Bayou.

Harriet Klausner

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Interesting & Entertaining Read

Folklore becomes reality when a mysterious mutation allows the fey to come out of hiding and begin feeding on humans. Unfortunately fairy bites lead to insanity and death in most of the population. Only a small percentage of humanity are immune, their very presence repelling the ferocious tinkerbells.

Annabelle Lee is striving hard to live the life unextraordinary. Her time is measured in the amount of drinks it takes to get her through the day and the number of sleeping pills it takes to make it through the night. Her life is a series of losses that have lead her to her current lifestyle choice. She is an avid avoider, underachieving at her job content to being a field collector or a fairy pooper scooper and contenplating how to dump her perfect boyfriend before like becomes love. Basically opting for the least of what life has to offer as possible, but she is going to have to put aside her lush, lazy ways to solve the murder of a young girl, save her friend from the blame, and keep her own sanity when she finds the ability to do things that shouldn't be possible and starts seeing or not seeing strange people. Annabelle is definitely going to be needing a stiff drink after juggling all that, while being investigated by an FBI agent with a personal score to settle, a very unhappy boyfriend, and the reappearance of the man who ripped out her heart.

Dead On The Delta was an entertaining read. I don't think the main storyline was terribly original. You could see all the possibilities and the twists weren't anything new. The strength of the book was world building and most of the characters. The Fernando character seemed like a weak play on Lafayette from Trueblood. I have a few theories about the mutations and where Stacy Jay is going with the series. Only future books will reveal if Jay's other threads are as transparent as the main plot of this book.

I am interested most in how things will progress with Annabelle and Hitch, two people coping with similar experiences in different ways. Hitch committing himself fully to work and hiding under the guise of conformity. Annabelle is the complete opposite outwardly using alcohol to numb herself, shunning material things, and pushing away anything that could mean something.

I think Dead On The Delta could be a promising new series. It's a bit light on the supernatural but has the potential to become more than a murder mystery with a few fairies and abnormal human abilities thrown in. It was definitely good enough to give the next book a chance.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Wonderful Start to a Series

This is the first book in what I hope to be a long, long, long series because THIS folks, this was a really GOOD read. It was a murder mystery type story set in the horrific world where the strong have made it and the weak really rely on the strong to help them get through it. Its fascinating really, fairies are the bad guys here, being little blood sucking death vehicles. But there's more than that killing people. The body of a six year old is found and that is how we meet Annabelle and start to learn about how the world has changed.

The author does a superb job of setting the scene and my only complaint is that the information is delivered inbetween dialogue spurts and your brain has to keep up with two different things going on. There was sometimes so much going on in the descriptive world being delivered, that I forgot about the conversation. A small complaint. There is humor (quite a bit actually) and some hunky guys, some lovely friends and even a really rather sweet kitty (and I'm not a cat person). I loved this story immensely. Blood on the Bayou, Book 2 in this series, will be available in Spring 2012. I'll be one of the first in line to buy it.

What I liked: I loved the character of Annabelle Lee. She is strong, but gentle, crazed yet uber intelligent, street-smart and vulnerable. She contradicts herself time and time again but in the end, she's a wonderful woman just looking to be loved and taken care of and shielded from the madness of the world around her.

What I disliked: I really would have liked more romance. Annabelle has soft spots (literally and figuratively) and it would have been nice to see her be loving and vulnerable in a romantic situation. It was alluded to in certain parts of the book, but I would have liked more, more, more sex. I hope future books have more of the good stuff in there.

Not recommended at all!

The first few pages are ok but after that it drags on. The main character whines the whole time and there isn't any action to it and barely any romance. The lead is a drunk and it's a hug pity party. The end gets a little better but you have to go through the whole book to get to anything good at all. Do not buy! It is a huge waste of money and space! It's a long book at that so there is a lot to be bored or frustrated with. If I coiled I would get my money back or not buy this book at all.

Going to be great!

I love everything that Stacey Jay writes. This story sounds like it is going to be very good. Her main character will be a strong one and I hope she is a little funny too. Make sure you check out her other books too.

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