Unquiet Dreams by Mark Del Franco

This is the second book in the Connor Grey series, and it keeps the story arc moving along well. Conner and Murdock are called in to investigate a murder where the corpse has been dropped from mid-air, which implies that some sort of flying being, if not the murderer, is somehow involved. Coincidentally, a wealthy philanthropist also dies on the same night in what appears to be a magical battle, and Conner and Murdock arrive on the scene to be immediately dismissed by agents of the Guild who are called to investigate. Conner, of course, believes that the two incidents are linked, and ends up trying to figure out what the tie-in could be.

One of Conner's mentors, Briallen, has designated him as her alternate on the Guild board of directors while she is on sabbatical, so he also gets dragged into some high level political wranglings in the city. The philanthropic murder victim, Alvid Kruge, was also a member of the board, and the selection of his replacement is high on the list of issues to consider. Conner hates politics these days, but seems to enjoy his role of monkey wrench in the works of the backroom deals.

With the help of the flit, Joe, and others, Conner eventually unravels the mystery, getting into all sorts of interesting scrapes along the way. There's a minor subplot of a developing flirtation between Conner and Meryl, his former coworker who enjoys giving him access to information from the Guild archives that he should be allowed.

A fun sequel. I'm looking forward to reading the third book in this series.

Unshapely Things by Mark Del Franco

I'd never run  across Mr. Del Franco before this, and I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised to add another interesting author to my library. Unshapely Things (comes from a Yeats poem) is mostly about Connor Grey, a druid living in Boston a generation or two after The Convergence, when the fey and faeries, dwarves and trolls somehow were pushed into the mundane world. Connor was a very talented young man, and was working his way up through the ranks of he Ward Guild, a paranormal FBI of sorts, staffed by druids, mostly, when an encounter with an ecoterrorist left his mind blasted, and him unable to work more than the simplest of spells.

After his medical retirement - the Guild still maintains the wards on his apartment and pays him a small stipend - he joined forces with Leo Murdock, one of Boston's finest, who usually ends up investigating crimes in Boston's worst neighborhoods, such as the Weird. Murdock calls Grey in when there appears to be a supernatural component. As the story begins, the duo are investigating a series of murders that have a ritualistic element; the victims hearts have been taken. Despite his best research efforts, Connor is unable to find out about any magic rituals that use human hearts, and is unable to convince any of his old coworkers in the Guild that the murders are important...at first.

When the latest victim turns out to have powerful relatives, though, the Guild investigators sweep in and take the case away from the mundane police, and Connor is not supposed to be involved any further. It would be a short story if he didn't have a problem with authority. He and Leo continue to work the case, quietly, and eventually he finds out that a ritual will indeed take place, opening the gate for darker powers than the fey to enter this world.

A nice touch, I thought, was that De Franco uses Connor's disability and his attempts to regain his powers through studying about "essence" to take care of the necessary exposition on the nature of the magic system in place in the world of the Convergence. He also does a good job of developing the supporting cast, such as Murdock, Keeva, a power hungry former coworker, Meryl, a sarcastic research assistant, and Joe, a flit (like a male version of Tinkerbell), all with good back stories, and even families, in some cases.

Lots of twists and turns and blind corners and dead ends in this preternatural procedural. Fun dialog, fresh characters, and a sympathetic hero make De Franco well worth watching.