Part of InCryptid
First published 2014
Alex Price came to Ohio with two goals: monitor a basilisk breeding program and help his psychic cousin get back on her feet. Neither job was supposed to involve a body count. But something at the Columbus Zoo is killing people, and the victims are not just dead. They are partially petrified, skin and bone gone gray and hard like garden statuary. Alex knows what that means. Most people do not, and he needs to keep it that way. His girlfriend Shelby Tanner, an Australian zoologist who works alongside him and has a sharp eye for things that do not add up, is already asking uncomfortable questions. Alex is a Price, which means he comes from a family that quietly manages the boundary between the human world and the cryptid one. That background is useful. It is also a secret he cannot easily explain over dinner. The third book in Seanan McGuire's InCryptid series moves the action away from the Price family's usual stomping grounds and puts Alex at the center. He is trying to do his job, protect the people around him, and not end up fossilized. The talking mice are watching his every move.
Genres: adventure, mystery, fantasy, contemporary, comedy, urban-fantasy
Vibes: clever, fast-paced, humorous, quirky, suspenseful, whimsical
Tropes: amateur-sleuth, found-family, secret-world, workplace-romance
Setting: Ohio, Columbus Zoo, Australia
356 pages · Mass Market Paperback · DAW
Content warnings: death, murder