The Green Man's Quarry by Juliet E McKenna

I would like to thank Wizard’s Tower Press for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher - Wizard’s Tower Press

Published - 21/10

Price - £17.00 paperback £4.99 Kindle eBook

The Green Man sends Daniel Mackmain to stop threats from folklore making trouble in the everyday world. Now a naiad and dryad want him to deal with the big cat they’ve seen prowling in their woods. Reports like this turn up in the tabloid press from time to time, though no one has ever caught such a cat, or even found evidence of a large carnivore’s kills.

Can Dan discover the truth behind this modern myth before social media turns his hunt into an internet sensation? He knows that not all animals are what they seem. A huge cat which can appear and disappear without a trace must be more than meets the eye. Dan knows one thing for certain. He’s on the trail of a killer.

In any long-running series there is always a question - where do you start? It’s intimidating when you know you’re five or six novels in before you even get to the latest novel. You may miss out on character development, long running arcs and struggle to understand the various areas and factions. Some series just avoid continuity - a detective just solves the next case. Other series can create mini landing points where, yes, you’ll be aware of older stories you can catch up on eventually but the story explains the current situation, avoids continuity and also importantly starts the next cycle of stories (yes Doctor Who I look at you!). I’m already a huge fan of Juliet E McKenna’s Green Man series a fascinating contemporary British fantasy series and the latest novel The Green Man’s Quarry I feel is just such an interesting starting point for new readers and also offers a remarkable evolving plot that surprised me as a regular reader and also reminded me how much more potential this series has in it for ever more great stories!

Daniel Mackmain works on an country estate but is also half human and half dryad (on his mother’s side) that grants him the ability to see all sorts of supernatural creatures. Dan is also for reasons unknown often given missions by a supernatural entity of long-standing The Green Man who represents the forces of nature. Dan has been across the country meeting all sorts of people with supernatural abilities as well as the hidden communities like dryads and sorting things out.

Dan gets requested by a Dryad to help investigate the potential murder of a man in Yorkshire. But here the culprit appears to be a black panther-sized cat and no loose zoo animals has been accounted for. Dan investigates and starts to find that the cat is definitely of the supernatural world and starts to link it to deaths across the country. Dan and his allies are going to be sucked into the criminal underworld and also meet other not always welcoming magical communities which may have repercussions for the rest of his world.

Now large black cats/panthers/beasts are a staple of British mythology and also tend to re-appear every summer. It’s a rich idea for supernatural origins as they always manage to vanish without a trace. What McKenna though does in this tale is slightly surprise us. We are used now to Dan having to battle monsters and yet this one is much smarter than any we have seen before. Indeed this is the first one who seems to match Dan in strength, cunning and is indeed more ruthless. We take unexpected twists into the criminal underworld; cross Ministry of Defence land and meet even more creatures. This tale gets bigger and bigger. Rather than limited to just one part of the country we go from Scotland to the South Coast and the tale has arcs of crime, investigation, attack, subterfuge and of course a lot of magical creatures to bargain, fear or battle. It kept me on my toes and I didn’t see where it was going at all but it all makes sense as the facts click together. What though becomes apparent is that this story is starting potentially to create a new force for us to get to know and they are very evenly matched for the ones Dan and his allies amount to. For a new reader this story will explain the lay of the land and also set you up I feel for tales to come.

What also impressed me and has been an ever growing dimension of the series is how Dan is no longer a single loner. As well as the welcome return of his very straightforward shape-shifting girlfriend Fin - it’s always refreshing to have two intelligent grown ups talk and respect each other in a series. But now we get various groups playing their parts from Dryads to the online wide women group Dan links to for cryptozoology and research. What McKenna now has skilfully designed and ably plays with in each book is a whole hidden British Isles of mythology in modern times adapting to us humans - sometimes in plain sight and others not. By roaming around the country for this tale we get a taster of how many more stories linked to history and myth this series can offer - I am not all unhappy to say it’s likely a lot!

The other interesting branch here is Dan as our central charter and narrator. I always appreciate his working man methodical approach to any task and challenge plus a dry and occasionally sweary worldview. Here though he is now so comfortable working with others and this is a tale of about him realising that and his own place in the world. At the same time McKenna puts Dan in a challenge he fears what will he do against something more dangerous than he? Can he kill if needed? The other aspect and again useful for new readers is Dan is only now releasing what else his half-Dryad genes have given him and that suggests a lot more supernatural capabilities Dan may finally be able to learn and use.

This story on its own is very very good. Surprising and really opens up the scale compared to the earlier tales. The stakes for this story are straightforward but hint at a greater challenge to come. It’s a great place for new readers to test themselves and I suspect many of those who do will rush rightly to read the rest. The Green Man series continues to be one of the most engaging and fascinating series in our current fantasy landscape and is strongly recommended!