Skin Deep

Skin Deep (2009) Mark del Franco

Having enjoyed Mark del Franco’s Connor Grey supernatural mysteries, I pre-ordered Skin Deep hoping he would do as good a job writing a female lead as he did a male lead. The book came, but then I put of reading it primarily for the blurb on the cover, “She’ll need to keep up appearances–if she wants to stay alive…” That blurb belongs on the orange-red cover of a pulp with the female character showing a lot of leg and a lot of cleavage. And maybe a disembodied hand with a gun. And a lamp post. I’m pretty sure there needs to be a lamp post on that cover.

Anyway, there is a fair amount of cleavage on this cover, but the woman at least looks competent. Plus, she’s curvy, which is also awesome.

But that’s enough about the cover.

Laura Blackstone is secret agent for the Fey Guild intelligence services. Her cover identity is the public relations director for the Fey Guild. She has had multiple identities over the years, but her current identity is as druidess back-up for the DC SWAT.

The world in which she operates is the same world as Conner Grey–at the turn of the last century, the Fey Realms entered our world, an event that came to be known as Convergence.

One thing that bugged me initially is it she seemed like she was at the start of her career instead of an experienced agent. So I kept wondering why she had so much free reign if she was such a young agent. I realized this mistake was probably because we meet her first as the Janice identity, who is, in fact, young and not very experienced.

Regardless, the mystery was interesting, and although it did have some romance/kissy stuff, that part wasn’t too overwhelming and was well done. I also liked the secondary characters.

There were some other weaknesses, but overall, I found the book to be enjoyable, and look forward to another Laura Blackstone book.
Rating: 7/10

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