The City Between Series – Books 1 to 3

Between Jobs

by W.R. Gingell
Series: The City Between #1
Setting: Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Genres: Fiction / Fantasy / General
Published on May 31, 2018
Pages: 234
Format: eBook Source: Owned

When you get up in the morning, the last thing you expect to see is a murdered guy hanging outside your window. Things like that tend to draw the attention of the local police, and when you’re squatting in your parents’ old house until you can afford to buy it, another thing you can’t afford is the attention of the cops.

Oh yeah. Hi. My name is Pet. It’s not my real name, but it’s the only one you’re getting. Things like names are important these days.

And it’s not so much that I’m Pet. I am a pet. A human pet: I belong to the two Behindkind fae and the pouty vampire who just moved into my house. It’s not weird, I promise—well, it is weird, yeah. But it’s not weird weird, you know?

I picked up this series not just because the description sounded interesting. I read it because of the setting. I have challenged myself to read more books set in or by authors from South of the Equator. This series is set in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.

So far there are 11 books. I’ve just read the first three.

Pet is a teenager who survived the home invasion murder of her parents because she had a bedroom that was accessed by a hidden door. None of the authorities who investigated found her. No one ever noticed that there was a child who was supposed to be living in the house and wondered where she was. She was homeschooled so no one noticed she was missing. If that sounds strange, it is. Something is weird about Pet.

It has been several years. She’s been hiding in her house (where the utilities have never been turned off – also strange) and working at a diner.

When there is a murder across the street, Pet watches the police through her shuttered window. She notices three unusual men who come to the crime site but who aren’t noticed by anyone else. Within a few days these men move into her house. When she is caught in the house, she finds out that she is now living with two Fae and a Vampire. They are investigating several years of murders. Pet has to make herself useful – be a Good Pet – to be allowed to stay in her house. This pulls her into worlds beyond the human one that she knows.

The mystery of who Pet is and why she is so determined to stay in her house isn’t fully answered in the first three books. It feels like this is going to be the big question of the series. Each book has a mystery that partially stands alone but also ties into the bigger story.

The City Between Series – Books 1 to 3

Between Shifts

by W.R. Gingell
Series: The City Between #2
Setting: Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Genres: Fiction / Fantasy / Urban
Published on September 30, 2018
Pages: 254
Format: eBook Source: Owned

There’s a body beneath the skip bins. Fae on the forklift. A vampire in the manager’s office. And there’s definitely something skeevy going on in the locker rooms.

Hi. I’m Pet. Well, not exactly Pet. I am a pet.

I was meant to stay out of it, but somebody’s gotta do something when humans are being killed by Behindkind creatures.

Lucky for me, my owners are just as dangerous and inhuman as the bad guys...

Now that Pet know was her “Psychos” (her term for the people who live in her house) can do, she wants them to help out when some humans are killed nearby. They aren’t interested. They are focused on their supernatural investigation. When she is able to prove that there is more to the disappearances at the local grocery store than it first seems, they go undercover to find the connection.

Pet is a great character. She’s very determined to do what is right. That may not be what is legal or in her best interest but she doesn’t care. She’s going to make people help her help others.

She’s not taking any lip from the supernatural people living in her house either.

The City Between Series – Books 1 to 3

Between Floors

by W.R. Gingell
Series: The City Between #3
Setting: Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Genres: Fiction / Fantasy / Urban
Published on January 31, 2019
Pages: 234
Format: eBook Source: Owned

I’m not supposed to push through the boundaries of reality without supervision. I’m definitely not meant to drag a cop Between with me.

But stuff happens, you know?

Hi. I’m Pet. Well, not Pet, exactly. I am a pet.

Nothing too hard; I just cook and clean for the Behindkind who took over my house. Easy. But now one of my owners has gone missing. He’s fae, so it shouldn’t worry me, but if there’s something out there that can kidnap fae, I don’t wanna meet it.

Good thing I’ve got another two owners and a spare cop up my sleeve…

One of the Fae is missing. Pet is supposed to mind her own business but this isn’t right. A cop that she knows is having problems too. Someone in the police department is trying to frame him for a murder. Someone needs to look into all this. The problems all seem to be coming from the Upper Management of the police force. It is time to see what they are up to.

I’m quite enjoying this series. I do plan on reading the rest of the books. I want to find out the answers to the bigger mysteries of who or what Pet is and what happened to her family.