Get It Together

The Undead Detective Agency, Book 1

By: Shelby Rhodes

Narrated by: Lance West

Hello, there! I’m Octavius Evander. And this is the beginning of my story—well…sort of. It’s not the very beginning. As a vampire, that story would be way too long to write down—think, before the Romans. Rather, this story is about how I met the love of my unlife. Okay, it will be mostly about the cool and fancy detective agency I opened and solving mysteries, but also a little about love too.

So, what does one need to open a detective agency, you may ask? Well, for one, a detective. As it was my idea, and I paid for everything, I, of course, filled that role. Next, I needed a secretary. My beautiful and marginally dangerous best friend Scarlett filled that role. Now, I will admit, at that time, I had not thought further than that, and simply skipped to getting my detective license, an office, and some other necessities.

My mind might have been too full of the fun adventures I was about to have. My hope was that those in and out of the paranormal communities would keep me entertained for a very long time. I quickly realized I still needed a driver, a tech person, and a witch that was good with ghosts. This is the story of how I found those people. And who would have thought the first to walk through the door would be human, with no knowledge of the paranormal—my precious Turney.

Content Warning: This is a slow burn M/M paranormal romance book. There will be blood, violence, and death. Please avoid if you find any of the previous triggering.

©2022 Shelby Rhodes (P)2022 Shelby Rhodes

Loved it!

I really enjoyed this first book in the series. Can’t wait fir the next one.

Loved it

I loved everything about this story. The narrator did a fantastic job with the voices and additionally managed to convey Octavius' naivety and enthusiastic approach to life in wonderfully joyful tones. I liked the characters and the world they inhabited. I enjoyed the mysteries they were tasked with solving as they were believable in the sphere of their lives.

A warning though, that while I appreciated Octavius' innocence even after 2,500 years of life, some may find his attitude annoying or ignorance frustrating. I prefer to think he is still open to learning and perhaps needs a gentle nudge with it occasionally.

Adorable Bat

i wasn't sure at first about this book it sounded interesting but it wasn't until Octavious transformed into a bat that i was hooked. I giggled and cried at that little bats adventures and heartbreak of trying to eat a sucker. The scene with the bookcase and the "And we takes!" difficulties is quite hysterical and the sad little bat afterwards will melt your heart.

I found the narrator's voice a little, for lack of a better term, irritating but i solved that by adjusting the narration speed.

The book was too short for my liking, especially having to use credits for it but am glad i did and am looking forward to spending the upcoming months credit for more adventures of The Undead Detective Agency.

An entire hidden world right under humans noses!

What a fun idea. After reading this book I wish it was true. The vampire was unlike any other I read about he was just down right crazy and fun and I loved that he could go out in the sun and what would happen if he ate solid food. We were introduced to other characters who were engaging and I enjoyed being drawn into their adventures and learning about this alternate world of monsters and magic. The book had mystery, a human that just couldn't beleive what was going on and a cast of creatures from the night ....and day... that made the story that much more interesting and of course there is GLITTER! Who doesn't love a Vampire with a glitter obsession! So happy I came across this book and glad to know it continues as a series. Can't wait to see what is instore for this cast of characters. Author - thank you for this what an imagination and great story telling. Narrator was great too brought these characters to life!! well maybe to life is not exactly correct for most of them!

loved it

I loved this book. Lance West does a amazing job bringing this story to life. Octavius Evander is a vampire and Detective of the Undead Detective Agency. His secretary is named Scarlett. He has everything he needs except a driver, a tech person and a witch. Octavius wants to help the paranormal community. He didn't think of the dangers and a very cute human driver named Turney. Will they survive the cases they get?

I laughed so much listening to this

I seriously couldn’t stop laughing at certain parts. I need the next book in this series!!! I loved Octavius and Turney. It’s really great we got both of their PoVs it made this story even better. Octavius in his bat form is unbelievably adorable. One of my favorite scenes was Octavius in bay form in the basement. I laughed way too hard at that since it was unbelievably adorable. These two guys do balance each other out well and I’m glad they actually for the lost part communicate though a certain ancient vampire at times forgets he’s supposed to inform his human of certain things. The side characters are very well developed and are also amazing. I had so much fun with this book! The narrator made it even better with his voices and the humor he brought to a lot of scenes. I’m definitely waiting for the next book and so glad I listened to this one!!

So Entertaining!

This was a new-to-me author and narrator and I'm looking forward to more from both! I really liked this low-angst paranormal story. The characters were fun, sometimes sassy, sometimes silly and all-around enjoyable. The plot had a decent spooky mystery, although to me it isn't really the main driver of the story... the characters are (both main and secondary). Octavius in particular left me smiling in just about every scene. The narrator did an excellent job voicing the characters and keeping the pace of the story engaging. The bat voice made me laugh out loud. Overall, I'm putting this one in my "to listen to again" pile. I hope we get more audios from this author/narrator combo.

EVER WATCH GROWNUPS TWO

I read this series and I really liked it so I bought it on Audible. And now here lies the problem, here you have this really sexy, a thousand year old plus vampire who's tall, who's gorgeous, who's built and definitely been around a block or two and he's got the voice of a preteen. It totally reminds me of that scene in Grown ups 2 where the women are at that water park admiring is totally built gorgeous guy and he comes up and talks to them and sounds like a cartoon character. I really don't know who chooses the voice actors but this is really disconcerting to me. I would really think that the writer who's put all their energy and time into writing these very fun interesting books would pay a little more attention to this very big problem. At the very least you should know who this character is and what he's about because let me tell you a narrator can wreck a story faster than anything and this one did it for me.

A very fun book, I was NOT prepared for the bat voice

I had read this book before I ever got the audiobook version and came in expecting a really fun listen. The narrator is great and leans into the lightheaded fun of the book. The best part of it is Octavious’ bat voice, which I was neither expecting nor prepared for and caused me to burst into giggles at work surrounded by people.

Over use of the word male

For the most part I really liked this book. It was funny and kept you engaged. The down side was that it seemed like every other paragraph had the word male in it. As in referring to one of the characters instead of just saying him or their name it was "the male". It got so annoying that it started dragging me out of the story each time it was said. I almost didn't finish it but I liked the story and the narrator so I pushed through it with some breaks. I want to keep listening to the next book but I'm worried it will be the same way.