Deadly Lineage

Necromancer Tales, Book 1

By: MJ May

Narrated by: Declan Winters, Curtis Michael Holland

Shunned by most species and abandoned by their warlock fathers, necromancers are marginalized, feared, and reclusive.

Erasmus Boone is different. His warlock father chose love instead of abandonment. Unusually powerful and talented, Boone embraced his necromantic abilities and managed to carve out an existence within a world that would rather he not exist at all.

Humans aren't the most respected species. Hell, they're just a step above termites in the eyes of most. Detective Franklin O'Hare has never taken derision towards his humanity to heart. Determined to do the best given his human limitations, Detective O'Hare does whatever it takes to right the wrongs of the world—no matter the species concerned—even if that means working with a necromancer. Besides, Erasmus Boone isn't so bad. In fact, he's temptingly perfect.

Seeking solace after a difficult case, Boone walks the typically peaceful gravesites of Trinity's Holy Cross Cemetery. The gentle hum of contented, long-dead souls eases Boone's mind—until he's hit with an unearthly cry unlike any he's heard before. Unfortunately, that first soulful cry isn't Boone's last, each wail revealing a disconcerting pattern. There's a serial killer in the wind, and their murders are resulting in souls with painful, missing pieces, leaving their voices incoherent and indecipherable.

Boone and O'Hare must work closely together if they're going to stop the killings. O'Hare learns quickly that keeping Boone safe from disgruntled clients and serial killers is a never-ending and nearly impossible task.

As O'Hare and Boone grow closer, so does the killer. They need to figure out who's indiscriminately murdering seemingly unrelated species and why the victims' souls are devastated beyond repair before Boone becomes another victim on the ominous list.

Deadly Lineage is the first book in the Necromancer Tales series. This series is a spin-off of the Perfect Pixie series and takes place in the same world but can be enjoyed on its own.

Deadly Lineage is an M/M romantic fantasy mystery with an unusually sane necromancer just trying to make a living, a humble human detective attempting to ignore his attraction to the aforementioned necromancer, an arrogant but redeemably overprotective warlock father, a twisted serial killer, a questionably agreeable all-powerful djinn, damaged souls, humans—some redeemable and some not, a steamy Mississippi summer, and far too much sweet tea. It also contains mentions of violence, murder, souls brought back from the beyond, speciest bigotry, and a few characters of questionable morals and sanity. Deadly Lineage has an HFN ending.

©2024 MJ May (P)2025 Podium Audio

it's okay, sometimes frustrating

The characters are internally consistent, which I appreciate. They do, at times, make too-stupid-to-live decisions that are hard to believe anybody would make. There is the saying that the average person is pretty stupid and half of people are stupider than that, so I guess it's realistic enough. My main issues with this novel are 1. it's very obvious who done it from the start 2. the timing of events is unlikely in a way that serves the story too much 3. the female characters are treated strangely. The writing itself is good enough, and the world building is sufficient. The voice actors did well.

Deadly Lineage ❤️

I love this book! This story is intriguing, and Erasmus is so cool! And his family is cool too. I love how much his parents love him and how loyal they all are to each other. His badass dad adores him and it's so sweet. Franklin is all sexy and overprotective of Erasmus. He's so smart and capable. I love them. 🥹
The different types of magic and magical beings are so interesting. I can't wait to start the next book!
The narrators for the audiobook are excellent. ❤️❤️❤️

Entertaining Listen

I'm new to this genre, fantasy/mystery MM. I greatly enjoyed the story line and didn't miss the usual sex scenes in MM audiobooks. Having a brand new plot line to follow made the difference. There were no overused plot lines here.

Deadly lineage

I actually really liked this book. It's very fun and I like the. Register regular series because I love the fantasy. I love the love that the couples have for each other. I can't wait for the second book. I absolutely love it and I can't wait to hear the characters. I kind of the only thing I would have to say. Is that I wish the one thing was that the razabeth would've been, the more lighter voice, then the cop because he was lighter voice in the other books

Fun spin off from the Pixie Series

This is a spin off from the Pixie series, featuring characters we first meet in the last 2 books (Perfectly Perplexing Zombie & Purrfectly Peculiar Pixie). This story however is a magical/supernatural police procedural with a dash of romance, opposed to the romance being a heavy part, like they were in the pixie books. I enjoy shows like NCIS & CSI, so having it be more of a whodunnit was interesting to me, but others might not like the tonal shift.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the narrators, they didn’t seem to fit the characters imo. (I had read the ebook before the audiobook came out and had a certain view of them)
Tbh I also sort of hoped they would bring back the narrators from the Pixie series, but I understand why they didn’t lol