Dark Whispers (Firebrand, #5) by Helen Harper, Ruth Urquhart 
Series: Firebrand #5
Published by Tantor Audio on January 18, 2022
Genres: Paranormal/Urban Fantasy
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Ruth Urquhart
Length: 7 hrs 22 min
Source: Tantor Audio
I received this book for free from Tantor Audio in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
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Listening length: 8 hours
The Supernatural Summit is about to start at the DeVane Hotel in London. Vampires and werewolves, ghouls and gremlins, and pixies and druids have all come together to find better ways to get along with the human community and address the strict laws which govern their existence. It's a real opportunity to change the world for the better and I'm proud to be a part of it.
But there are protestors camped outside the hotel and dangerous rumours circling about one of the delegates. When a dead body is discovered, I know it's only a matter of time before all hell breaks loose.
I have to find the murderer. And I have to find them quickly.
Dark Whispers is the fifth book in the action-packed urban fantasy Firebrand series.
DC Bellamy has 48 hrs to solve a death of a human at the first Supe Summit.
With the help of people like Detective Constable Emma Bellamy of the Supernatural Squad, London will be hosting the first ever Supernatural Summit, where Supes from all over the world can meet and foster better relations between the different Supernatural groups as well as the humans. Everything looks promising as the opening speeches are made until Emma is pulled away to investigate a murder, a murder of a human attending the Supe summit. This is a disaster. There are already protestors against the Supe Summit outside and the death of a human, could mean that this is the first and last summit ever. As the victim was human, the case is supposed to go to the main office, but Emma convinces her superior to give her 48 hours to catch the killer.
Emma was warned that someone known as The Chief was going to cause problems at the Summit, but his own death probably wasn’t in his original plans. Problem is the more she learns about this man, the harder it is to find sympathy in his death, except Emma would rather have seen him go to prison for his actions than go to the morgue.
The Chief was promoting himself to be able to remove the monster from Supe but mostly he was praying on hapless humans, more afraid of Supes than who actually had knowledge of them. He would convince these humans that he could remove their monster for a fee. So what was he doing at the Supe conference? Was he starting to believe his own self-promotion? Did he think he could actually remove the monster from a real Supe? Did he approach the wrong Supe and is that why someone killed him?
While entertaining, this was a littler slower moving and a tad bit predictable. Lady Sullivan, one of the heads of the werewolf clans, is still trying to pry Emma away from her love, Lord Lukas Horvath, leader of the local Vampires. Emma is still getting pushback from some of the Supes who don’t believe the police will work with them. And in this one, there is an annoying journalist who keeps asking stupid questions, pushing and pushing and looking to be attacked by someone. The investigation seems to go in circles until Emma gets that one piece of information that was being hidden from her.
It isn’t that the story wasn’t enjoyable but overall in comparison to the others, it was just okay. We had some nice moments with Emma and Lukas at the beginning but then he gets pushed to the back of the story, just popping his head in for the occasional updates.
I like Ruth Urquhart’s narration on this series and would still recommend trying the audiobook on this series.
