Book Review
Title: Breach of Peace (The Lawful Times Book 0.1) by Daniel B. Greene
Genre: Dark Fantasy, Horror
Rating: 5 Stars
I have been following Daniel YouTube channel for years now and I have followed his publishing journey very closely so when Breach of Peace was actually released I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. I didn’t know anything about it going into it other than what Daniel has mentioned in his video but I can definitely say I was hooked from the very beginning. We are introduced to Inspector Khlid as she is called to the murder of the Pruit family. From the second she arrives we know that this entire family has been butchered in horrific fashion. We also introduced to Khlid’s husband, Samuel and Inspector Chapman who are all working on this case. Together the three begin piecing together what they believe happened to the family based on the evidence and all believe that this wasn’t a revenge killing against the family but it was meant to send a message.
A terrorist rebellion has already been mentioned and several attacks and killings have happened throughout the Empire and they believe that these murderers are another attack but they can’t say anything until it is confirmed. They only have the cellar left to search and they all go down together, although at this point I was feeling that there was something off about Chapman but I couldn’t put my finger on it. In the basement they are being stalked by a creature of some sort which Khlid manages to take down but none of these seasoned detectives have any clue what this creature is. So far, Daniel has managed to blend dark fantasy with some classic body horror which I am loving. Very quickly everything seems to pick up as Chapman makes observations about the case and the victims that aren’t sitting right with Khlid and she decides to keep a closer eye on him especially when he claims to be meeting with an informant of the rebel group which no one has been able to do. By the time they meet up she realises that he is playing he and demands the truth where he tells her there is no informant only him, which means he is working with the rebels. Khlid tries to arrest him but she is out of uniform so he has the upper hand, he gives her a concussion and tries to explain about the mysterious thing happening in Warehouse Two and asks her to bring all the help she can as he is going to need it.
By the time she returns to the station and explains everything to Sam and her Captain they have a decision to make. Khlid tells them that she believes what Chapman said about needing help so the Captain puts together a task force to raid the warehouse before the Ministries can get involved. Initially it seems like everything is going according to plan until the raid begins where Khlid and Sam find Chapman has been tortured and injected with the same black liquid that the creature from the Pruit manor was filled with. A nurse explains when Khlid begins beating her that the liquid whatever it is changes them and most turn into monsters but Chapman seems to be handling it better than most but Khlid tries to put him out of his misery. From there everything descends into chaos when they realise one of the Anointed is there. The Anointed as a special race of demigods changed by the Almighty himself and are above the law as they only answer to the Almighty. The officers realises they are way out of their depth and this is shown when they begin dying, while Khlid manages to escape and make it back to the station she knows she doesn’t have long as the Anointed is hunting her down and arrives sooner than Khlid expected killing the remaining officers and taking her to be a new test subject.
Overall, Breach of Peace was an amazing novella and a brilliant start to a new dark fantasy series that I will definitely be continuing to read in the future and I can’t wait for more. This book honestly has it all, it dark, gritty, full of political intrigue, a unique political system with deities and demigods. This hit all the right buttons for me and at only 130 pages I would highly recommend picking it up right now. I have to figure out when the next book is going to be coming out because I can’t wait to see what happens next, whether or not Khlid will return in later books or whether we will be following a new set of characters and I hope to learn more about the Anointed as we are only briefly introduced to them here but we do get to witness what they are capable of.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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