Screams of the Season

MM Paranormal Romance (Critter Catchers, Book 5)

By: Hank Edwards

Narrated by: Zachary Zaba

Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

A Christmas spent far from home. Cody’s father gone missing. Clues that point to another monster case.

Demetrius accompanies Cody on a trip to visit his parents in Colorado for Christmas. The house is packed with Cody’s four brothers and their extended families, which is something close to chaos and means Cody and Demmy are sleeping on the living room floor of Grant, his oldest brother.

Soon after their arrival, they learn Cody’s father’s truck has been found in a ditch with no sign of his father and are out the door.

Everything going crazy around them makes Cody appreciate what he and Demmy have found together, and he opens up to his family about the true depth of their relationship. There are mixed reactions, but Cody's honesty with his family proves to Demetrius just how important he's become to Cody, and he realizes he couldn't ask for a better Christmas gift.

Between Greg Bower’s disappearance, Grant's cannabis greenhouse, and a trip to the mall with Cody’s nieces and nephews, the guys also manage to find themselves smack dab in the middle of another monster case when a sasquatch makes a terrifying appearance. As they high-step for their lives through the deep Colorado snow, they’ll end up saving a movie stuntman with a terrible sense of direction and writing Cody’s nephew an IOU for a brand new drone.

©2015, 2017 Hank Edwards (P)2023 Hank Edwards

Loved it!

Another great audiobook in the Critter Catchers series, I really enjoyed listening to it and can’t wait until the next one is released.

Zachary Zaba gives another consistent performance!

It is wonderful to visit with the gentlemen of Critter Catchers yet again. This time author Hank Edwards treats readers to Cody's commitment to his relationship with Demi in the form of a trip to meet the family in Colorado Christmas. But before Christmas, our boys must get through their first Thanksgiving as a couple living together in the home left to them by Demi's Aunt Amelia. Demi extends an invitation to dinner to the friends they have amassed over their adventures only to discover he has bitten off a whole lot to chew. The boys are successful in hosting a wonderful gathering filled with laughter and friends that in no way prepare them for the holiday events at the Bowers home.
Cody and Demi are taken aback when they are not welcomed at the airport and are required to make their way by Uber to the Bower residence. They are stunned to find Cody's parents financially backing Grant Bower's cultivation of medical marijuana and its recreational use is far from the most startling thing the boys learn about Cody's parents. With a home full of Bower boys, their partners, and children (born and unborn), all are distressed with the disappearance of Greg Bower--the family's patriarch. Leaving the home after a disagreement with the wife, the father's automobile is found by the side of the road with the cell phone inside. Examination of the vehicle suggests Greg Bower hit a large animal then got out uninjured, possibly to escape after being pursued.
When the boys join in with the search efforts they discover a stunt actor in a sasquatch costume who had wandered offset. But looking about for Greg Bower results in Cody and Demi finding him in addition to a very real sasquatch that was, fortunately for them all, easily distracted by the costumed stuntman. After being cornered in the shack where Greg Bower hid out, an overturned lamp causes a blaze that sets the real sasquatch on fire and running away. The guys' burns, scratches, bumps, and bruises were all patched up at the hospital and they were released in time for Christmas. The most important occurrence for the holiday visit was Cody's ability to tell the family about the change in the quality of his friendship with Demi--that he is Cody's lover and his hope for the future. With only one detractor, Demi is welcomed by both parents and three of Cody's four brothers. The story ends magnificently with Cody asking Demi to marry him!
I can NOT emphasize how delighted I am with how the writer grows the series' principal characters within each book and throughout the entire series arc. Development of secondary characters occurs in each book of the series, too! The examples are too numerous to list! Along with remarkable world-building, the pacing (the rate at which the writer introduces key elements in the story) and balance (the distribution of varying types of elements in the narrative) is exemplary. With an awesome premise and compelling storyline, the author produces another exceptional novel for an outstanding series.

Lots and lots of drug use

I've read and (mostly) enjoyed the other books in this series--the relationship between the two leads is definitely what made the other books winners for me. This one, however, fell so completely flat for me I'm not sure I even want to continue the series.

The relationship is still mostly good--I'm not sure I quite buy Cody's "gender doesn't even matter!" shtick, but then I'm not sure I really ever did, so there's nothing special about that here. The monster hunting part is hokey, but it has been hokey from the very beginning, so again, no change in my opinion there. What made me not enjoy this one is the incredibly weird addition of a particular character trait for our heroes, namely making them both into potheads.

Look, I swear I'm not a prude about this. I'd even support federal legalization if I had to vote. But it sort of comes out of left field that both Cody and Demetrius apparently just LOVE to smoke pot. Half of the book reads like a public service announcement for the Cannabis Growers of America. There are three--THREE--very long chapters in this not-particularly-long book where Cody and Demetrius get stoned out of their minds. Two of the chapters are adjacent, but no, it's not just a really long extended sequence, because Demetrius gets high in one chapter, and then gets high AGAIN in the next (with Cody this time). And it's not just enough that they get high, they also wax poetic about how fricking great this pot is, and whoa, man, I can't believe my brother is growing this perfect pot, it makes me horny and now I have the munchies. And even in the chapters where they aren't high, someone goes on about how awesome pot is.

It's such a bizarre and out of character turn that it totally ruined the book for me, and, most likely, the series. Two stars, not recommended.