Johnny Lupul is a werewolf private investigator sent to Las Vegas to investigate a case and stumbles upon some witches, a psychic pawn broker, and an enemy with a mysterious secret. Johnny must resist changing into his werewolf form or reveal his secret. Johnny goes to Las Vegas to retrieve an item for his boss in Chicago that supposedly was fake but turns out to be the real thing. I really enjoyed reading this paranormal urban fantasy novel. I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review. ( )

Disclaimer: An electronic copy of this book was provided in exchange for review by publishers Black Rose Writing, via Library Thing.
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This second entry in the Werewolf PI series cranks up the violence level but skimps on the background that made the debut volume (Johnny Lycan & the Anubis Disk) stand out from its urban fantasy peers.

This time around, Johnny is dispatched to Las Vegas to pick up yet another arcane artifact purchased by his eccentric employer, only to find that the person who was beaten out at auction for the goodie is not willing to give up so easily. The item in question is an egg-shaped crystal which may or may not be an alien artifact; in any case, it proves to have some unusual powers. The would-be buyer sends some pretty serious muscle out to grab what he couldn’t purchase, including another not-quite-human creature, the Berserker of the title. There’s a whole lot of fighting (with and without the assistance of Johnny’s werewolf persona), a few modern-day witches, a brief romance, and the discovery of a possible way to control the beast with which Johnny shares a body.

So in that sense, the universe being developed for this series does get a bit more fine-tuning. This reviewer simply wishes that Turmel had been able to figure out how to include a bit more of the background he set up so skillfully in the first volume. A reader coming in without that background is apt to flounder a bit, trying to identify all the players without a program, so to speak.

The series continues to be an interesting take on the paranormal / superhero genre, and readers will just have to wait for the third installment to see how Turmel is going to give new readers a leg up on understanding the ground rules for Johnny and Shaggy. ( )

Fun. A much delayed sequel to the initial volume and potentially the start of something that could be quite interesting and worth following.

Johnny has now got himself established, nominally as a PI, but in reality he has 1 paying client and old man searching out treasures that he hope will extend his rapidly diminishing life. The first book sought out a local one which turned out to be curse. This one Johnny is sent to Vegas to collect an item that has already been bought at online auction. What could possibly go wrong? Of course the competition resort to underhand means to attempt to retrieve that which they couldn't fairly obtain - and even worse they seem to have some knowledge of werebeasts.

Johnny remains somewhat over the top - but the world building is attractive and well paced releasing more details history and back story, with hints that future books may also develop the characters rather than just becoming an endless progression of ever harder fights. Worth keeping an eye on. ( )