Review: “Kill the Beast” – Serra Swift
, pub. , pp
“Lyssa leaned her elbows against the counter and watched the Morning Star’s proprietor, Molly, fill another pint glass. She was a buxom battle-axe with a slash of a mouth and a gleam in her eye that said she welcomed trouble, if it meant she got to use the lovingly polished mace hanging above the liquor bottles behind her. She finished pouring and slid the glass to the man at the end of the bar.”
Lyssa is a bounty hunter. Her bounties: monstrous beasts created by the Fae. Alderic, a foppish drunkard with an endless amount of coin, has hired Lyssa to kill the Beast of Buxton Fields. Little does he know that she had already sworn an oath to hunt down this fairy hound in vengeance of her dead brother. Together, along with Lyssa’s bullmastiff, Brandy, they gather ingredients to smith a magical weapon capable of ending the beast’s reign of terror.
The novel’s pacing is governed by the literal cycle of the moon. It seems to almost pause when the cast intermittently returns to the Witch’s Wood (a magical sort of sanctuary accessible only by drawing a door in chalk), then immediately picks back up as the story progresses.
Each character is unique and the main two characters have clear, strong arcs which build perfectly towards the climax of the story. I enjoyed questing with Lyssa and Alderic, and learning more about the both of them throughout their travels
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