Deborah Blake.
Wickedly Dangerous.
Berkley. 2014
rating : 4.5 : passes the time
review : 14 October 2020
Older than she looks and powerful beyond measure, Barbara Yager no longer has much in common with the mortal life she left behind long ago. Posing as an herbalist and researcher, she travels the country with her (mostly) faithful dragon-turned-dog in an enchanted Airstream, fulfilling her duties as a Baba Yaga and avoiding any possibility of human attachment.
But when she is summoned to find a missing child, Barbara suddenly finds herself caught up in a web of deceit and an unexpected attraction to the charming but frustrating Sheriff Liam McClellan.
Now, as Barbara fights both human enemies and Otherworld creatures to save the lives of three innocent children, she discovers that her most difficult battle may be with her own heart…
Barbara Yaeger, as this particular Baba Yaga is known, arrives at a small town to find that children are disappearing. She joins forces with the local Sheriff to discover what is happening: a combination of fracking and fairies threatens to destabilise the world.
This is fine mind candy, as we discover more about Baba Yaga’s background, and the Sheriff’s own tragedy, as they work together to uncover the bad parties. But some of the aspects are disappointingly underused: the addition of a fairy Queen dilutes the Baba Yaga role; Baba’s three dragon helpers play a minimal role, mostly off stage; and even her enchanted caravan could have contributed more than a fairy door and enchanted fridge. So, too much candy, and not quite enough substance.