Review: The Foul Mouth and the Cat Killing Coyotes, by Richard Raley

Author: Richard Raley

Title: The Foul Mouth and the Cat Killing Coyotes

Series: King Henry Tapes #2

ASIN: B007JCKFR0

Publisher: Richard Raley (March 13^th 2012)

Disclaimer: Copy received for review

Buy your copy: Kindle

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“King Henry Price, honored and learned graduate of the Institution of Elements, has settled back into his normal life, running his Artificer shop, creating new designs, selling old ones, and ignoring the occasional explosion when testing goes haywire. He's been minding his own business...only when he happens across a bunch of bullies picking on a woman, he can't resist the opportunity to smash faces, can he?

King Henry never expected the bullies would be part of the Coyote Nation, he never expected that he could be starting a war, and he surely never expected one of his lost sisters would be on the other side.

Jordan Josephine Price...found you at last.” GoodReads’ blurb

Oh how I love the King Henry Tapes series. Reading the second volume was like coming back home, I promise... And it featured all the great stuff that made me fall for our foul mouthed hero back in book one. If you’ve not read about it, go here and check my review.

So, The Foul Mouth and the Cat Killing Coyotes picks up right after The Foul Mouth and the Fanged Lady let off. I’ll be completely honest: it took me a few pages to get back into the dynamics for these books and to remember exactly what had happened, but once I did? I devoured the story!

King Henry thought he was done telling us about his messed-up teen age years. He thought he had spilled his feelings, he had matured, and that was it. Boy, was he wrong: he didn’t have to talk a little about himself... He had to tell everything! So he does. He tells us about another episode that also changed him: no in the shattering, emotional way the even in book one did (not sharing in case you haven’t read) but in fundamental ways nonetheless. We’ll get to see his priorities, and we’ll get to see what it means to be an Artificer (and how exactly he discovered that one).

That’s for young King Henry. But, do you remember how there are two sets of tapes? The ones about the beginning of it all, spoken while he was still a brash, scarred young man; and the ones where he remembers about being brash and brazen after he becomes infamous.

The second set doesn’t tell special anecdotes that might enlighten us about being a Mancer or about growing up. It’s telling how King Henry became as well-known as he is... step by step. In book one we had Annie B., a stolen artifact and a lot of vampire politicians handled with the King Henry special care package: punch first, ask later. It showed us that in spite of his choice of words, King Henry could be trustworthy, had a heart in the right place and was capable of compassion.

We’ll see another growth spurt in his character in this newest adventure. We’ll start with him not being the hero: he doesn’t help ladies because he’s a hero, but because he hates bullies. Except, those bullies are not what they seem. They come with strings attached, enough of them that King Henry could weave a whole tapestry. And while the consequences might or might not seem that big and important in the big scheme of things, this installments gives us action, fun, character development... and a lot of pieces set for upcoming titles, if I'm not solely mistaken.

His reaction to the situation was so genuinely his that it warmed me in spite of the swearing. No matter how many times he drops the f-bomb, or calls witches with capital b, or makes gross and coarse comments... this dude has a soft spot in my heart. Because, you know? He might be delinquent kid he is, but he calls a pot a pot and a kettle a kettle. And when he acts, there’s logic to his actions. You can agree or not, and you can follow his lead or cringe at the mess he’s going to make of things, but he’s consequential with his actions and that’s something that makes him real.

Should you read this series? Yes. Immediately. As in, drop your TBR and grab it. There’s bad language and coarse jokes on racial stereotypes and on sexism, there’s a spoken quality to the narration that sometimes butchers grammar (just like a man with King Henry’s background would butcher grammar, no more and no less) and there might be a real typo here or there in between the characterization, but I’d like to ask you to actually embrace that because it makes the character and the series unique.

Recommended hands down!