Reviews

Evil Eye by Alyssa Day

kathydavie's review

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3.0

Third in the Tiger's Eye Mystery cozy paranormal mystery series and revolving around Tess Callahan and Jack Shepherd. The story is based in Florida.

My Take
There’s greed and then there’s GREED. That Shelley has quite the entrepreneurial soul, lol. It never hurts to capitalize with this sort of friendly greed. On the other hand, there’s an evil kind of greed that won’t stop at anything.

Day is using first person protagonist point-of-view from Tess’ perspective. Since she’s at the center of most of the action, it does make sense.

Dead End is a small town with plenty of characters, most are even supportive of each other. Tess certainly has a lot of friends in many walks of life (or death).

Jack brings his own conflicts, although they are fairly minor. Even though he is originally from Dead End, some of the townsfolk have their suspicions. He certainly does not like the Fae. They have a bad attitude about shifters. And it turns out that “Tommy” is “one of the most cutthroat, bloodthirsty Fae of the High Court”.

If you need a good laugh (or twenty), you’ll love this cozy paranormal mystery.

The Story
Tess is barely over the last dead bodies on her doorstep when her new private investigator neighbor asks for her help again.

It’s buried treasure that’s found, arghh, and the greed comes out to kill.

The Characters
Tess Callahan owns a pawn shop in the strangest town in Florida. The cat Tess rescued was named for Lieutenant Uhura, a.k.a. Lou. Tess has a gift; she can sometimes see how a person is going to die. She now owns and runs Dead End Pawn with her secret weapon, Eleanor Wolf, as a part-time employee.

Shelley is Tess’ “new” sister, adopted by Uncle Mike and Aunt Ruby, the relatives who raised Tess. Tess’ maternal grandmother is a banshee (Private Eye, 2).

Jack Shepherd, a tiger shapeshifter and former rebel leader from Day's Warriors of Poseidon series, has returned to Dead End and opened a private detective office, Tiger’s Eye Investigations. His late uncle Jeremiah had left his pawn shop to Jack and Tess.

Dead End, Florida, is . . .
. . . “even ghosts get jaywalking tickets”. It is, however, a safe place for all supernaturals, especially with the special charter that predates the founding of the US. Mellie runs the bakery. Mrs Meriwether’s Coca-Cola cake is a treasure. Mr Arroyo, a vampire, has a plumbing business. Beau’s Diner is the only eat-in restaurant in town. It’s also gossip central. Former mayor, Lorraine, has waitressed at Beau’s for about 50 years. Dave Wolf, Eleanor’s son and Jack’s childhood best friend, built the attached office for Jack’s new business. Molly Chen is Tess’ best friend and has a band, Scarlett’s Letters. Tess reckons it’s a good thing that Molly’s parents are lawyers. Veronica Dunstan-Smythe, a.k.a. Dice, is her anger-issued bass player. Melinda Mako is the queen of cutthroat defense lawyers.

Sheriff Susan Gonzalez is a friend of Tess’. Andrew Kelly is her chief deputy. The disgusting Doc Ike is the only physician in town and the town coroner.

The Swamp Commandos are . . .
. . . ex-military from various Special Forces team who have grouped together in the swamp. The boys have recently opened an airboat rides company — they’ve named it Swamp Commando Airboat Rides. They’ve already turned a profit. One of them, Lucky Tremaine, wants to ask Molly out. Dallas and Austin Fox are twins and former Army Rangers who are seriously good with computers. The Darken is a dark web for magic users.

John Luke Arnold (he's been dating Dice) and his brother, Peter, own a gator farm, Happy Time Gator Town.

Tommy Turner, a.k.a. Tomas Turaoin who is a High Court Fae via Ireland, of Tommy’s Traveling Treasure Trackers is in town. Elaine, a.k.a. Ela’han, is the producer of his show and a witch. Her six leprechauns are captive to her demands. The Fae High Council shows up.

Pierre Arneaux is a ghost protecting his buried treasure; in life, he’d been a privateer for King Louis XIV. Dr Linda Parrish is an expert on Spanish doubloons.

Matthew is one of the tourists visiting Dead End Pawn. Yasmine had sold the bowl to Tess. It was in 1995 that the world found out about shifters, vampires, and the Fae. Felix had been the local toymaker (Private Eye). Oskar had been his son. Sheriff Lawless is the former sheriff (Dead Eye, 1).

The Cover and Title
The cover is nighttime dark with a deep purple blue sky and a full moon bracketed by the silhouette of a tree that is part of a black silhouette in the background. The ground is a hilly yellow green with a vague tree trunk on the left, a lily-pad surfaced pond in the front with green vines and plants on its far edge. In the center of this cartoon graphic the blond Lucky, in black leather and holding a long-handled shovel, and the red-haired Tess are crouched over a pirate chest — skull included. Behind Tess is Jack in his tiger form. At the very top is an info blurb in white with the author’s name immediately below it in a light violet. The title is under the chest in a white, stressed font. Below that, in yellow, is the series info.

The title could refer to the greed, the Evil Eye cast upon that pirate treasure.

abeautytoyourbeast's review

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adventurous lighthearted mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

meganh123's review

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adventurous lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

inmyhumbleopinion's review

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4.0

Evil Eye is a fun cozy mystery with paranormal characters that will make you smile with the flip of each page. Tess and Jack take on a ghostly pirate and some more fleshly villains in a search for gold and treasure. A terrific addition to the series.

read_with_miss_g's review

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adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

3.75

roguesmith's review

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5.0

Evil Eye, or the continuing adventures of Tess and Jack.

Dead pirates, treasure, alligators, witches, fae and doughnuts. That about sums up this instalment of the Tiger's Eye mysteries. Tess and Jack spark off each other, I'm loving the slow burn of the relationship, I love how Tess is no pushover and stands up for herself.

Oh, and more of the Swamp commandos please and thanks.

local_hat's review

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funny lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Loveable characters? Yes

3.0

This series is fun and light and not too serious, and it's perfect for right now, but the books after the first are just a little too short. I want a little more! And this one especially, I want the mystery fleshed out a little more. The big solve happens offscreen, which is a little disappointing and feels abrupt. And there hasn't been enough background done in the series for it to be something that makes sense to readers.

slc333's review

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3.0

The books in this series are light and fun. They are also on the short side making for a quick easy read. I would prefer more progression in the romance department tho.

laurla's review

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4.0

according to my kindle (which lists page numbers for this one) and amazon, this is only 117 pages long, not 125 like goodreads claims.

-4 stars. i really wish these were full length novels.

"did you really just tell me to run along? you do realize that brutal predators and even master vampires have cowered at the mere sight of me, right?"
"yet somehow here i am, not cowering."

"you're a growing girl, tess; you need more than that."
"i'm twenty-six. any more growing i do is going to be of the horizontal variety."

summary: tess sees a ghost pirate in her shop and he steals a gold coin from her. then treasure hunters show up in town just as dead bodies start showing up. escaping alligators, real buried treasure, and a zip-line gone wrong feature as well.

sarah_katvala's review

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funny lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

2.0