The Dire King

The Dire King wraps up the Jackaby series nicely, but overall I feel like it was mostly underwhelming. The first two books of this series had almost no hint of a ‘bigger baddie' hiding in them, but then once we get to the third and fourth book, that's all they're about. I definitely found myself missing the ‘monster of the week' set up that the first two entries in this series followed. I would have happily read 10 more books with Abigail and Jackaby, if they were the ‘monster of the week' sort.

Maybe it's just me, but I felt that the Dire King's plan was never very clear. It was vague, and not in a good way – what exactly was he planning to do with the sword, the shield and the crown? What did he want? Why did he want that? These questions are answered, very quickly and without much fanfare almost 80% of the way through the book.

The big reveals at the end of The Dire King happen basically one, two, three right in a row and you don't get any real chance to savor them. Ultimately, I think I'm disappointed with how this series ended. It had real potential, but didn't rise to it at all.