A Nightmare on Elk Street

The Bright Falls Mysteries, Book 3

By: C. T. Phipps, Michael Suttkus

Narrated by: Arielle DeLisle

Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

From the Best-Selling Author of The Rules of Supervillainy:

Jane Doe has settled into her new role as the Shaman of Bright Falls but that doesn't pay the bills. With her boyfriend off chasing his evil father, Jane has decided to take up a job as security on the set of horror movies being filmed in her hometown. Unfortunately, the crew have been threatened by an ominous force that quickly sets its sights on Jane herself.

Complicating matters is that Jane's past sins are coming back to haunt her with her vengeful cousins still blaming her for the death of their sister. Her complicated relationships with Alex and Lucien are also about to come to a head. Enjoy the final installment of the Bright Falls Mysteries! It's deerlightful!

Set in the same universe as Straight Outta Fangton, The Morgan Detective Agency, Red Room Trilogy, and Psycho Killers in Love.

©2021 Charles Phipps (P)2021 David N. Wilson

Like a deer in headlights...

Huh, I swore I'd already left a review for this one. But I guess it didn't take or register? Anyway,... I received this book free of charge for my unbiased review.

I think this is the end of the series? I wasn't sure if the Bright Falls Mysteries were going to be more than a trilogy, but I'm pretty sure CT said this was the end, at least for now. As such, this *final* entry into this region of the Phipps/Suttkus World of Monsters universe was as charming as ever. Plot threads are tied up from the previous two books and frankly, if you've enjoyed the previous 2 audiobooks full of deer puns, then you'll enjoy this one as well as it pays homage to classic slasher flicks of the 80s/90s.

As always, Arielle breathes life into Jane and all the quirky characters of this series. She makes them believable and relatable as they go on these snarky pop-culture adventures.

Gonna miss Bright Falls

I was very excited to be back in Bright Falls, Michigan, a town full of shifters and other supernaturals. Our main character, Jane Doe, is a weredeer. Weredeer have a thing with puns, they can’t help but make them. So, be ready for some truly chuckle-worthy puns in this series. There are plenty of pop-culture references, this one heavy on 80s slasher flicks (though there are references to genres of horror too).

So in this story, criminal mastermind and weredragon, Lucien, is trying to get Bright Falls out of some seriously heavy debt from the vampires. How do you make money quickly and mostly legally? You make a cheap horror movie with the supernatural (way cheaper than special effects). But then, someone is trying to kill off the cast. Jane, hired to be one of the stars and security, has something to say about that.

This is a really fun series with characters I would love to meet in person. There is plenty of action and so many laugh out loud moments. I would recommend that you start the series with the first book, I Was a Teenage Weredeer. If you’ve read some of other Phipps’ books, you will notice that some other characters from this world are mentioned, but you can read this series without having read any of the others (though I recommend them because they are just as much fun).

Narration:
Arielle DeLisle does a wonderful job of the narration of this series. There is a fairly large cast of characters, many of them male, and she has no issues with all the voices. I think each of the voices match the personality of the character. She’s also great at the inflection of each character, bringing out the humor of the story.

More “deer”lightful fun with Jane

Do you like puns? Horror movies? Fantastic urban fantasy full of witty banter and pop culture jokes? Then you should definitely be listening to the Bright Fall Mysteries. Presumably if you’re looking at reviews on this book, you’ve already listened to books one & two (if you haven’t, go do so, you can thank me later), and enjoyed them as I did. Book 3, in my opinion, is the best of them. Like Jane, the series has matured a bit, don’t worry, there’s still lots of snark and jokes. But Jane has gained a well deserved confidence that was great to see. The premise of the story, they need to make a low budget horror film to save the city, was a little ridiculous, but in a tongue-in-cheek fun way that was throughly on board for.
Many of the characters from the other shared United States of Monsters world make an appearance, or are at least mentioned, and while it probably helps to be caught up on those, it isn’t needed. William, The Accountant, was a particularly fun appearance for me.
Having read The Supervillainy books would also be helpful to you (especially as I’ve heard laughter is the best medicine, so I’m pretty sure that makes them healthy for you), but not strictly needed to enjoy the book.
But back to Bright Falls and Jane. No longer a teenager, but still obviously a were-deer, she’s got bills to pay, a diner to run, a boyfriend not returning calls, and a movie to star in with a bit too much realism for comfort. I enjoyed getting to experience Jane figure out what she wants for her life versus what was just expected of her. Phipps and Suttkus knock it out of the park with the writing, great pacing, wonderful dialogue, and lots of well timed jokes to keep you laughing. And as usual, they sneak in some great reflections on our current world between, or with, the jokes.
Arielle was fabulous, as always, she has a very large cast to voice in this book and she handled them all beautifully.

Jane is my favorite shifter

Note: This is book 3 in the series and really works best being read in order.

Jane has to shoulder a lot of crap in this book. She’s the shaman but a lot of people look at her age and make assumptions. But it’s not like she chased after the position. It is what it is. Then there she is, working hard providing safety from the local paranormal elements for a film crew. That film crew includes some of her cousins, and they have a bone to pick with her still about the death of their sister. Then there’s her unavailable boyfriend, Alex. He isn’t returning her calls or texts. It’s all a bit much and it feels like things are falling apart.

But for us readers, it’s a great story full of plenty of culprits with a laundry list of motivations. Jane and her allies must stay on their toes to manage this situation. There’s plenty of snark and pop culture references. I especially liked the cross-over cameos from other Phipps series.

Jane has to face an old fear in this book as she survived an ordeal as a kid at the very same location this film crew wants to work at. Then there is Lucien, who is Alex’s brother and Jane’s ex-lover. Such an awkward position for Jane to be, especially when she vents a little to Lucien about Alex being so distant these past several months. I really felt for Jane on this one as Alex has left her in relationship limbo.

The story has a blistering pace for much of it, plenty of action. I felt like Jane was constantly having to kick something in the mouth just to take a step forward to square up with the next problem. It was great. I liked that there was no moss growing on this story. The tale ramps up a bit for a nice little crescendo and many things are resolved. I still hope to have more books in this series as I don’t feel that Jane is really done fighting Evil. 5/5 stars.

The Narration: Arielle DeLisle makes a really good weredeer. She has a great voice for Jane and I like how she managed to make her cousins sound related but also maintained unique voices for each of them. Her male voices are also believable. The pacing is perfect and there were no tech issues with the recording. 5/5 stars.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Fun take on the campy horror films.

Puns. So many puns. Toss in a bit of lore about horror movies, references to those movies, and the trademark snark of our deerlightful main character and you got a fun tail.


Deer lord I'm infected now.

A Nightmare on Elk Street review

A Nightmare on Elk Street was a real blast of an exciting story. It had interesting characters and a great narrator. The short story at the end was just as good. It was well worth listening to. Now to go and listen to part two.

Great listen

Filled in some holes for me in this series and another from C.T. Phipps. Excited to get a chance to listen to it. Jane is as sarcastic as you are use to and introduces more loveable characters.

Thoroughly enjoyable finale

I've really enjoyed the Bright Falls Mysteries books. I'm sad to see it end, but I respect the author for making sure to wrap it up - I roll my eyes when an author seems intent on stretching out a series indefinitely for dozens of books with no real conclusion.

This book does go in a few odd directions, in my opinion. It could definitely benefit from some strong ending, to avoid some repetitive word choice. And one of the big key reveals was pretty heavily telegraphed for much of the book (and I'm someone who NEVER sees the big reveal coming in mystery novel).

But it's still entertaining. It's full of vibrant personalities and action. And, of course, deer puns.

A lot of fun!

I enjoyed this book! I thought that it was a nice way to end the Bright Falls Mystery series. Everything about these books is fun so I couldn’t resist giving this book a chance, especially after seeing the title. Like the previous books in the series, this book was filled with pop culture references and a plethora of puns. In addition, this book includes a lot of references to the horror films I remember watching as a teen. I really had a great time with this story.

Jane Doe is currently the Shaman of Bright Falls and decides to take a job working security for a low-budget horror film that Lucien is making. The job turns out not to be so easy once real attacks start happening. Throw in some family drama, some boyfriend troubles, and her feelings for Lucien and things get exciting really quickly. I thought that the pacing of the novel was very well done.

Arielle DeLisle does a fantastic job with this book. I think that her voice works very well for Jane and I like the various voices that she uses for the other characters. This book has a lot of humor worked into the story and I thought that her delivery was very well done. She was also able to add a lot of excitement to her reading. Her narration added to my overall enjoyment of this story.

I would recommend this series to others. It is a nice lighter read that I had a lot of fun with. I loved the way that the puns and pop culture references were worked into the story and I thought that this book brought the trilogy to a satisfying ending. I wouldn’t hesitate to read more of this author’s work in the future.

I received a copy of this audiobook from the author/publicist.

It was like watch the story arcs dieing

I truly have mixed feelings about the
story has it felt similar to the time I watched "RE: Finale Chapter" where toke all the unfinish storylines and finished them has fast has possible and bring in new and old chacthers that hadn't been seen in along time has plot devices that It felt weird has I didn't really have a big impression of them to like or hate just trying to figure out if they even matter.

The story links to outer novels and even gives hints to later novels was interesting to pick at those. A fine point of this was Jane using her friendship if comic chacthers to show where awesomeness but no one believing her made it funny to to see those nice nods. Do seeing the slashers was totally let down has they weren't has cool has they were in there own novels has they felt like they were more like they where to be info dump for Jane or minor help in battle.

Has I read the story I thought there would be more horror in the novel this time but it was more b-c type horror not true horror but it felt right and I'm not sure why but I injoyed it. Do i did hope there would have been an evil doll scene but the node to Chucky dool was amassing to read has it gave a new look at Janes childhood from toys she played with.