Dark Alchemy ~ Laura Bickle

Bickle, Laura. 2016. Dark Alchemy. New York: Harper Voyager Books.
ISBN 978-0062404923.  $6.99 USD.

I am a big fan of urban fantasy, but not so much westerns, so I was a little uneasy about reading Dark Alchemy by Laura Bickle, which would be classified more as contemporary dark fantasy than urban. It ended up being so good that I immediately ordered the second book in the series, Mercury Retrograde! Dark Alchemy seems to fall into a genre all its own, with hints of Native American mythology and medieval alchemy running through the book.

Petra Dee, a geologist, travels to Temperance, Wyoming, to try to find information about her father who has been missing for many years. She is escaping memories of a deadly oil rig explosion which cost her a job and the life of her lover. What she finds in Temperance is a run-down trailer, a strange magical artifact, a drunken Native American seer, a coyote familiar, two antique guns and a whole lot of trouble brewing between the local drug dealer/alchemist and a brutal rancher with strange control over some individuals she comes to find out are called The Hanged Men.

Petra has a lot of courage, and her desire to find out about her father’s disappearance sometimes drives her to dive head-first into danger without thinking of the consequences. This excellent first book ends in a cliff-hanger, and pretty dark one at that.  However, with the sequel already published (and more books coming) I am looking forward to more of Petra’s adventures with The Hanged Men and her coyote sidekick, Sig. I recommend this one!