ARC Review ~ the Graveyard Watch~

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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I always love a fun Urban Fantasy and this book definitely fits the bill. The author brings to life a wild cast of characters in a world that really drags you in. Those last few chapters were action packed and had me on the edge of my seat. I can’t wait to see if the author has more in store for this world.

Thank you NetGalley and Small Bear Publishing for this ARC!

Something about the blurb for the Graveyard Watch grabbed my attention and I’m so glad I took a chance on this book. RJ Eason has created a fantastical world set in modern day London and it’s into this world that human pathologist Jocasta Lewis lands after she’s passed over for promotion or so she thinks when she finds herself seconded to the I.C.P.O or the Graveyard Watch as those who work there call it. Suddenly she’s got to suspend belief as she learns that when something goes bump in the middle of the night there’s every chance it could be a monster under the bed and she’s now part of a specialist team where her colleagues include Domingo, a centuries old Spanish vampire, Sebastian, a gay French werewolf; a lab technician who’s also a gnome and a potential love interest for her in a sylph called Will, and together they police the supernatural beings that live amongst us.

This book had me intrigued from the opening chapters as it alternated between telling the story of Domingo over the years as he went from being a lone vigilant to a Vatican sponsored agent for good as he hunted his nemesis and present-day London where he now leads the Graveyard Shift and where something dark is stirring. At times I did get strong Harry Potter vibes with Domingo playing Dumbledore to Jocasta’s wide-eyed Harry as learns more of what her new position entails and instead of trolls in the dungeons it was a case of ghouls in the morgue - here’s a tip chlorine gas might slow them down, but it won’t kill them so if you should encounter one, RUN! There was even a background character named McGonical. I did feel the story jumped a bit in within chapters. One minute you’re reading a scene with Jocasta and Will at dinner then the story abruptly switched to Domingo, but this might just be a case of formatting within the book itself and didn’t really spoil my reading as I soon got used to it. I’m looking forward to reading more adventures from the Graveyard Watch team.

"The Graveyard Watch" is an urban fantasy about a paranormal police unit dealing with undead cases. In a world very similar to ours including but not limited to vampires, werewolves and other species that go bump in the night. We have all manner of supernatural creatures and humans who are oblivious to their presence. It's almost as if they are living parallel lives, yet they do frequent the same places.

Enter Jocasta who takes a while to realise that this isn't a regular type of job, she's human so you've got to expect that. Even for a pathologist, The Graveyard Watch is weird. Jocasta is thrown in the deep end, into mystery, theft, several dead individuals, car chases and plenty more action. There's a lot going on in this book and it's perfect for those who want non stop hither thither .

I liked the worldbuilding but found a few thing drew me out of the narrative. First there was the different point of views, they weren't consistent throughout the book and seemed to pop up randomly. Jocasta appeared as a smart intelligent woman at work but a lovesick hormonal teenager in her personal life it was a little too hard to accept. It was funny in places, however the language and sentence structure was oddly formal and made me think what century are we in. The mystery wasn't as intricate as it originally appeared. Also I couldn't understand why some characters accents were emphasised to the degree that their words were phonetically spelt ('zee' for 'the', etc) out whereas others were not. Overall a good read but these distractions, became irritations and therefore made it difficult to enjoy or love this book.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers Small Bear Book for a digital copy of this book in exchange for a candid review.

Comedy and fantasy is hard. Yes we can all think of Pratchett but getting the balance between unreality and then making us laugh at it is difficult. The fantasy police procedural is a common place to try to merge our world with a magical one. Adding laughs then is hard and sadly i found the attempt by RJ Eason in The Graveyard Watch to be incredibly disappointing.

Jocasta Lewis is very disappointed to not get her dream pathologist posting but is sent instead to a mysterious unit based under Tower Bridge. It leaks at high tide, her new boss the mysterious Domingo de Torres is keen she works for them but the cases are strange. Men drained of blood art thefts conducted in a minute and her department is ….odd. Jocasta is about to learn the rational world she knows isn’t quite what she thinks.

I’m very sorry to say I was massively underwhelmed by this tale. There is little sense of character across the board. Jocasta feels two dimensional with no real grasp of who she is beyond what is needed for each scene - an issue for her as the entry point into the story. Weirdly she is initially praised more for her forensic skills rather than pathologist ones - especially weirder as the team has a gnome forensics expert too. Its a little laboured in 2024 to have a novelty French accent used for one character while del Torres speaks fluently. The use of metaphors laboured and the plot is not that interesting. Humour I accept is in the eyes of the reader but I found this went for the predictable and unfunny with a strange desire to add a joke to most parts of the description. I couldn’t really get into the story throughout

None of the book appealed to me and I did find it clunky to the extreme. I have no desire to see what happens next and I ultimately cannot recommend to anyone.

A fantastic urban fantasy, mixing old fashioned and futuristic aspects. Jocasta if an amazing pathologist who’s just been assigned to the graveyard watch, an odd name for an even odder department. Soon she’s thrown into the deep end of a new to her paranormal experience. Werewolves, vampires, gnomes, and many more are soon to appear in her life and neither her love life or her work life will ever be boring again

I enjoyed this take on an urban fantasy, but ultimately I think it just wasn't to my personal taste. a special paranormal detective agency is always a trope I enjoy reading, and it was interesting enough here - I liked how the characters interacted with each other, and I thought jocasta was very clever and quick, which I really liked about her. I liked some of the worldbuilding aspects and it's always fun to see how different authors put different spins on supernatural creatures and such. but this just didn't click with me? everything just felt very okay - the pacing, the writing, the plot. I didn't hate it, but nothing in particular was catching me. the different cases felt too disjointed to keep me interested, and specific aspects of the worldbuilding confused me - what time period is this in? does the world as a whole know about supernatural creatures? the formatting of this also really put me off, but maybe that's just because it's an arc and it'll be fixed once it's published. overall, paranormal detectives is always a really fun read, but this just wasn't my taste.

I liked the mix between paranormal and mystery/crime story. I even got to suspect some characters I didn’t expect. The mystery definitely catches you from the start and I liked how every character was very distinctive in their personalities, so seeing them work together with their different dynamics was a blast. I think this was thanks to the overall humor in the story. To name a few examples of this: Jocasta’s inner monologue as well as Sebastien’s personality.

The way Jocasta’s job was portrait and her love for it was very interesting to me. I know nothing about it but it sounded very compelling to understand the mechanics of her job and how she starts to solve parts of the mystery.

I think one of my favorite parts was Jocasta and Will’s relationship. How they started to know each other and how she got to experience some of Will's special talents.The fact that both got to do it with the lessons was charming and honestly was very unique to me. Also, I loved how everyone shipped them.

I was pleasantly surprised with Domingo. I initially thought he was going to be some sort of a fatherly figure for the team and just send them off to the missions and it was nice to see I was wrong.

You can tell that I enjoyed the book so much that I’ve been speculating. Are there going to be consequences of some of the last scenes in the book? Are the characters going to be the same after that? Will it trigger a new plot?

I would’ve liked to know more about Will’s family and childhood since it is brought up a couple of times but not really explained. As well as a bit more explanation of how Domingo and Will meet for him to get to work with him. I feel there is so much of Will's side of the story that we don’t know yet, but hopefully in a later installment.

Oh how I wanted to give this book 5 stars. Its Silent Witness but Paranormal, A magic version of Torchwood. So many things to love. And I did really LIKE this book. A lot. But there were a few things that made this book a 3.5 and not a 5.

Our 'Nikki' (Silent Witness, IFKYK) - Jocasta Lewis is a shrewd and educated Forensic Pathologist who has ended up demoted and working with a bunch of weirdos. Her boss Domingo de Torres is a mysterious spanish man with an aversion for shaking hands with people. Together with an assorted cast of other slightly weird characters, Jocasta gets drawn into an Art theft investigation that makes no sense. And then, suddenly bodies start turning up. And if she thought her new job and colleagues were just a little bit strange, just wait until she gets some of these bodies on her table and under her knife.

We meet Jocasta in a bit of a confusing way, shes kind of in trouble we think but its not clear why, in fact, we dont really know much about her and that doesnt change at the end of the book. The author was in a rush to start the action and as such, many puzzling questions remain with me, like - Where does the money come from? Because Jocasta lives in what sounds like a largeish warehouse conversion close to Shad Thames. London has some of the most expensive real estate in the world, and her Dad was in the Navy and her Mom was a Coroner. Now I get this is fiction, but the point of Urban Fantasy or Paranormal is it is based in the modern world. So, this could be something that is explored later in the book, but its not even touched on. Which makes it quite confounding and hard to believe.

Then there is her hard to believe lack of credulity when she first encounters the paranormal truth. She is a Forensic Pathologist and she just dives right in with barely a question? This again feels like the author rushing us to the important part where everyone knows and we are trying to save the world, but as a result of the rush, the whole way through, I am just not that invested in our main character. There is also the weird internal conversations she has with herself that dont start until Chapter 3, prior, we have a normal internal monologue/thought stream but after chapter 3 its always conversations between her and her subconscious.

And finally, the most GALLING thing, the thing that made me almost walk away from this book 3 times is the written accents. WRITTEN ACCENTS - the french man says Zhe and Zhey and the german man says Vat and Vhen but the spanish man? Apparently no written accent. Even though the author references his accent. Its horrendous and cringey and quite frankly insulting to the reader. If I dont know what a french accent sounds like, I could probably Google it, or just read the book and enjoy the character in whatever 'accent' my subconcious puts to the character. This is jarring and completely takes me out of the story which I am sure is the opposite of the authors intention. I think that this is going to be polarising for readers, which is a shame because its such a good story and I am DYING to know what happens next. I won't find out though if the written accents continue

It is not hard to convince me to read any book that centres around a paranormal police force. However, one that goes the extra mile to include forensics in its urban fantasy worldbuilding? Now that is different—and incredibly enticing. Admittedly, I jumped into The Graveyard Watch knowing I would probably love the setting. What I wasn’t expecting was just how addictive the plot was. I finished this book in one sitting because I couldn’t bear to put it down.
As a woman in her 30s that exists on the internet, I won’t deny that a good chunk of my personality lends itself towards true crime and investigative crime dramas. It is exactly that proclivity, coupled with my genuine love of the fantasy genre, that was drawn on when reading this book. The Graveyard Watch is essentially an episode of CSI, but with vampires, fae, and werewolves running around hidden amongst the humans. The fact it managed these more fantastical elements while maintaining a semblance of real-world forensic knowledge blew me away. A large chunk of that was because of Jocasta. Her dark humoured observations as both a medical examiner as well as a human learning about magic and magical races for the first time made her incredibly likeable in my opinion. Which in turn absolutely sank me into the mystery of what was going on, and who was responsible for all of the murders. In essence, she was invested, so I was too.
Ultimately, I really enjoyed this and I am kind of hoping that Eason turns it into a series. I would absolutely read more, especially if more includes a certain French werewolf I now adore.

I had a lot of fun and throroughly enjoyed this good mix of horror and urban fantasy.
Well plotted and gripping, excellent world building and storytelling
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I loved this so much and really hope there’s a series on its way. Jocasta takes a test. at work and thinks she’s failed when she’s sent off to work with The Graveyard Watch as their new pathologist. Little does she know what’s in store.

There’s a great cast of characters in this, Sebastian is definitely a favourite. The mystery around the death of the ice skating coach leads to a more in depth investigation and Jocasta really gets thrown in at the deep end.

Great writing, fab characters and a brilliant storyline. Thank you to Rebecca at Small Bear Books for sending me this arc.

This was a fast read, and overall I rather liked the urban fantasy atmosphere the author created, with different types of magical creatures working together and/or interacting within their own community, all very inclusive and representative. Though I have a bone to pick with how predictable some plot twists are and how unbelievably long it took for the characters to work them out, the plot mostly made sense and some predictability might perhaps even be charming for the readers who enjoy particular tropes.

Sadly, there were some things that just kept grinding on me, so by the end of the book I found myself enjoying it significantly less than at the beginning. Let me start with the whole “vocalizing subconsciousness/ bickering with said subconsciousness” thing, especially when it only ever happens when the female character is thinking about her potential romantic interest. Can we just agree that this is a tired technique and any conflicting thoughts characters have about each other can be introduced and illustrated via means other than random italicized text? Honestly, if these snippets had not been there, the story would’ve lost nothing of value whatsoever.

Another thing I feel we need to agree on is that watching people sleep without their permiss- excuse me, I mean covertly following a person (including but not limited to hanging out outside their fourth-floor window) you’re romantically interested in “for their own safety” is not sexy. And I know we all don’t want romance to be dead, but as an adult woman I can guarantee that any boyfriend/partner of mine who drops in through my balcony doors unannounced and just starts taking their clothes off to join me in the shower will be going right out those balcony doors stat thank you very much, so can we like… not? Still, I understand that the entire romantic subplot is meant to be entirely consensual, so, you know, whatever floats your boat I guess.

Predictability aside, I could also do without multiple POVs that didn’t seem to be appearing in accordance with any underlying logic. Some of that logic also seemed to be missing when it came to how the undead community is actually integrated into society at large. Say, even if big events such as coronations are held at night, some daylight folk are bound to notice tons of human-looking individuals congregating, no? Perhaps this is something the author intends to address later on. It also didn’t make a whole lot of sense that most non-native English speakers in the book, whenever they needed to say ‘no’, tended to do it in their respective mother tongues. I mean, it could be a cute quirk for one character maybe, but all of them? Too much of a stretch.

So, some little things and some bigger things made this book less fun for me than it could’ve been, alas. (Frankly, it seems that many of them could’ve actually been fixed at the editing stage, and I find it somewhat surprising that it didn’t happen.)

*Goodreads review posted 1/16/24, see link below

3 stars, 1 spice

<i>The Graveyard Watch</i> is I believe R.J Easton’s debut novel and is the first of an urban paranormal series with a romantic subplot. It follows our FMC Jocasta, who finds herself suddenly and sullenly moving from one job to another; a move she thinks is a punishment, since her new job is with the Graveyard Watch. The Graveyard Watch is a group of law enforcement that polices and corrals the supernatural of London, a fact that Jocasta learns soon on into her work, much to her surprise.

The descriptions of London and the supernatural were great, you could really feel the dark and dank atmosphere at times, and could get a could sense of the Graveyard Watch lab, where a lot of the plot takes place. The cast of characters was also colorful and interesting on the surface. There were times I wished there was more exploration of the characters’ unique personalities and backstories. I felt that sometimes, for some characters, the overuse of their spoken accent written out was distracting from connecting deeply with the characters. I know this doesn’t both some people, but I’m picky with this, I don’t really like to see exaggerated accents written on page. If you tell the reader or give the reader a sense of the character, we’ll be able to use our imaginations, promise. But again, this is a personal preference!

Aside from developing a bit more character depth and backstory, another constructive note I would give would be to be more consistent with changing between character POVs. Again, this is a personal preference, but the elite way to do this is when the chapters change. However, if a POV has to change mid-chapter, it should be clearly marked for the reader. It was at times in this book, but there were also times that it changed between paragraphs, and I was lost for some good minutes because I didn’t realize we were with another character.

Like I mentioned in the second paragraph, I really enjoyed the setting and descriptions of this book. The author did a great job describing the world itself, and it really did give off an almost spooky, noir film style. But while the descriptions and non-dialogue writing was awesome, another constructive note I would give would be to work on the balance between that descriptive writing and character dialogue writing. The dialogue at times feels heavy and stilted, because the characters are relaying plot details or repeating plot details for the readers benefit, when a lot of that information can be written more masterfully into the description and non-dialogue writing. It all goes into show not tell, and developing the worldbuilding.

But for a debut book (I think), this was a cool read and I’m excited to see where the series goes.

4.5 stars rounded up

This was such a great debut and start to a new series. Men in Black vibes but paranormal. Great characters. Immersive world building. Mystery and puzzles. Once I started reading I was hooked

Multiple POV is used throughout with great success, and helps provide background information as well as plot movement. I hope we'll get more of the Graveyard Watch's team POVs in the next installment (*Sebastien*)

I really look forward to continuing this series!

This was such a wonderful and enjoyable read!!!! I loved this book and highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys this genre. Thank you so much to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

🌟 4.5
🌶️ 1

What a fun read! I love a good urban fantasy, and this one delivers with a nice romantic subplot. Add a mystery involving centuries of working to remove a pretty diabolical villain. Don't forget about an exciting set of quirky side characters who are magical creatures. The dialogue is witty, and Sebastien's affection for coffee is delightful. I am curious about the dragon who keeps moving in their frequent bar. I liked how the author slowly revealed the supernatural nature of the Graveyard Watch, and we discovered it along with the FMC, Jocasta. In addition, Domingo's involvement with the Graveyard Watch is revealed to us in another storyline as we learn about its origins. All in all, this made for a well-paced, funny, mysterious, and exciting story, and I am hopeful this author has more stories from this crew in store for us readers.

Thank you NetGalley and Small Bear Books for the ARC
These opinions are my own.

Thank you to the publisher, Small Bear Books, and to NetGalley for the free ARC. Most of all, thank you to the author, R.J. Eason, for writing a refreshingly excellent urban fantasy comedy. This book is seriously good! And it's so funny!

There's great worldbuilding, with our FMC, a forensic pathologist, getting recruited to the paranormal police force, the ICPO. She learns that the world contains vampires, werewolves, and all other manner of weird and wonderful creatures . This becomes one key story arc - the FMC uncovering the hidden paranormal society, and finding unexpected romance. It's a very sweet romance too.

The second, and primary story arc, is the paranormal police commander's centuries-long attempt to get vengeance against the baddie who killed his family and made him a vampire. Said baddie is also trying to sieze control of the paranormal world and it's up to the ICPO and their allies to stop him.

All of this is told intelligently. wittily, and with serious homage to Terry Pratchett. If you want urban fantasy that isn't insta-lovey, doesn't take itself too seriously, is written by a clearly intelligent author, and is just 100% engaging fun, then please read this. You won't be disappointed. I really hope we get more ICPO adventures!

In terms of constructive feedback. I felt that there were some missing scenes in the first couple of chapters. There are moments that we never see, most notably, the FMC's first meeting with her future love interest. After the early sections, the novel flows freely, so perhaps just some early hiccups. In any case, this is still five stars for me.

I loved The Graveyard Watch. The atmosphere was not only interesting, but it was creepy, and eerie as well. The characters were fantastic. The whole cast is great, especially Domingo, Will, and Sebastian. It is full of supernatural creatures and has a really solid plot. I also enjoyed that it follows two different characters, yet comes together nicely. I hope there will be more books on this crew. Loved the author's writing style.

Really well written with good characters. A little bit too much cop drama and not enough supernatural for my liking but still very good and an entertaining read

I’ll start off by saying how much I thoroughly enjoyed this new urban fantasy. It follows pathologist Jocasta as she’s at first unwillingly recruited to join the graveyard watch, whose remit is to police the undead residents of London. She soon discovers that her new unit is not all that it seems when the bodies that arrive at her morgue are not quite human and neither are her new colleagues.
Graveyard watch is such a great debut from R.J Eason, a very well written plot with a host of supernatural creatures, lots of humour, action, likeable characters and a dash of romance. It struck me as a it of a cross between ‘Rivers of London’ and the tv show ‘Bones’ with a hint of ‘Parasol Protectorate’, all favourites of mine. Really hoping there’s a sequel to come.