Rindis.com

Tea With the Black Dragon had crime/mystery as part of its central thread, and in this sequel, it’s basically the main plot in classic ’80s fashion, with a murder, no clear sense of who could have done it, plenty of police involvement as the main characters try to figure out the whodunnit, and a long confession of past misdeeds as part of the end.

Like the first book, there’s some fantasy here in an undercurrent, and it does have plot ramifications, but is never focused on. In fact, if you know nothing of the first book, you’ll probably spend a long time waiting for a reveal on Mayland Long that will never happen here.

Instead of Silicon Valley, this is more of a period (now) piece on the music scene as the action revolves around a small band as part of the Celtic revival of the ’80s that is finishing up a tour. Martha has pulled the group together, Mayland is acting as manager, and tempers are frayed at the end of a long trip.

The worst thing is that the Open Road Media version of the text for the book is in horrible shape, and obviously hasn’t had anyone go through it at all for clean up, as problems crop up from the very beginning, including Long’s name not being capitalized at one  point. (Interestingly, about 2/3s through is in better shape than the start, and it gets worse again towards the end.)