Dyer Street Punk Witches
Kit hung up her brass knuckles, but the shadows of her past always lingered. Now they’re back to claim her.
Kit “Fadulous” Hamley, magazine editor, activist and former punk rocker, is a well-known loudmouth in St Alphege’s. She works tirelessly to hold local authorities to account. Some say she’s making up for her criminal youth. Others spread rumours of witchcraft. Only a handful of people know how dark her secrets really are.
When an old friend warns Kit that a former rival has resurfaced, those secrets start to resurface. People have gone missing, with body parts and strange symbols left behind, and someone is stalking Kit. The gang she abandoned are scared stiff and her magic-wielding bandmates are long gone. Kit herself is a target, and if she can’t unravel exactly how this new feud connects with her past mistakes, it could kill her.
Decades older, a little wiser, and contrary as ever, Kit’s going to remind them all what a punk witch can do.
Get ready for a riotous ride into the seedy underbelly of St Alphege’s, where gang warfare and occult conspiracies tear ordinary lives apart. Dyer Street Punk Witches is a standalone urban fantasy thriller, packed with tough, subversive characters and tense twists – you won’t be able to put down.-Goodreads
Title: Dyer Street Punk Witches
Series: Ordshaw #7
Author: Phil Williams
Page Count: 255
Genre: Fantasy / Urban Fantasy
Rating: 4.5/5.0
Date Read: November 22nd, 2024
Opening
Dyer Street Punk Witches by Phil Williams was a long overdue read. This was one of my selections to read from the SPFBO-9 competition. It looked different than my usual picks and it was a shorter read which had me thinking I could squeeze it in far sooner than I did. I finally worked it into my November TBR. I had a lot of fun with it.
Pacing
The pacing in DSPW was a bit on the faster side. I wouldn't say this was a bad thing. If anything it just reflects how engaged I remained throughout the story. There is still a good balance in setting up characters and plot along with a lot of action. I didn't have any trouble with names of places or characters and it seemed well edited without a lot of typos or other errors to knock me off course either.
World Building
The worldbuilding ended up being very intriguing and perhaps my favorite part of this read. The magic within this story was really interesting to me. The different degrees of power or connection between characters and this magic was a nice twist as well. Some characters may have a more natural and stronger connection than others. Add that to a story that includes an already interesting part of town with multiple gangs fighting for control or they place in the hierarchy of things and it laid the foundation for a good read in my opinion.
Character Development
The character development was also solid. There were a lot of characters to keep up with but I felt the author did a great job in keeping things straight and giving each of them a unique personality. Many of the characters were very different which made relationships blend well or clash to the extreme. Again this kept the story fresh along the way. There were also some really good reveals or story twists to help this feeling too.
Closing
In the end this turned out to be a really enjoyable read and I honestly wish I had got around to reading it sooner. I also didn't know until I finally started reading that this was actually book #7 in the Ordshaw series. I'm not sure what that will mean to me as far as flow. I do want to check out more from Phil Williams now and I suppose I could look into more from this series. I just hope jumping in at #7 doesn't ruin too much if I go back now to book #1.
As far as recommendations go, I would say if you're looking for something a little different with some rich magic in an urban fantasy story this might be right up your alley. We have plenty of strong female characters holding their own in this one. It might even give vaguely similar vibes to stories such as the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher or The imPerfect Cathar series by C.N. Rowan.
Scoring
Pacing 4.5 / 5.0
Worldbuilding 5.0 / 5.0
Character Development 4.5 / 5.0
