This was a really fun read, kind of a comical hardboiled super hero fiction. The world building is interesting and consistent and the characters are engaging. The plot was interesting and unpredictable. I hope people don't avoid it due to the superhero angle, the plot character and themes would be well done if found in a more mainstream book. I highly recommend this book! ( )

A non-powered P.I. investigates a case of disappearing superheroes in a world that caters to the super powered.

Bob Moore: No Hero started off with a bang, or maybe I should say it was on fire considering Bob was in a tree that was set aflame by a super he was investigating. I thought it was a great start, it grabbed my attention and made me want to keep reading. However, after the first few chapters, which were action-packed, the story pacing slowed down for me quite a bit and became a bit mundane, but only for awhile. Things picked up again when Bob finally accepted the case and started investigating.

I did like the dialogue between Bob and Khan and would like to have had more of that. Khan is a super who works for Bob but whose powers have a bit of a glitch. I liked his character. Overall the dialogue was comfortable but a couple of times it felt like Bob was channeling an old detective noir movie. Bob himself seems a bit of a jaded character. He doesn't like the supers much and doesn't have a lot of good things to say about them, but then he does have some history with them that would contribute to this. Also, the world he lives in caters to the supers and seems to treat the non-powered like second-class citizens.

Andry has certainly created a world that is an interesting "what if" scenario that considers what might happen if super powered humans suddenly started showing up in the population in significant quantities. One of the questions I had after reading this book is where did the superheroes come from? Superheroes in this world are a somewhat recent phenomena but I don't recall it ever being explained why they suddenly started to appear. The curious kitty in me wants to know the whys and whats behind this. It is an interesting superhero world and though we learn quite a bit about it, I wonder if the next book will go into more detail.

The classic superhero characteristics that comic book lovers can appreciate fill the pages of this story: spandex (lots of it), molded masks, secret identities, nifty gadgets, super geniuses, and campy names. On the other hand, I can't say that the supers are the focus of this story like they would be in a comic book (not that I'm an expert on comic books, mind you). The story is told from Bob's perspective so it is more about the world that Bob lives in and his interactions with the supers in his investigations and daily life, including his past. Bob has some emotional baggage related to the supers, but it adds an edge to his character and it is also relevant to the story.

Much of the book didn't seem to revolve around supers at all but was more about Bob, his back story, world-building, and the detective aspect of the story. When the story got too detective-ish without action scenes to keep me glued to my ereader, I started to lose some interest until Bob got to the house where he makes a bizarre discovery. This is where things really start to get interesting. Hey, I read paranormal...I love me some weirdness :)

I liked the writing style and the world Andry created. I also really liked the ending and how the mystery was resolved. I was definitely glued to the last third of this book. I didn't guess the culprit, but I came close. I felt it was a solid book with solid writing but it didn't completely fulfill my personal reading needs. If the story hadn't slowed down for me and if I had more appreciation of the detective aspect of the book, I would probably rate this higher.

3+ (I liked It)

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Bob Moore is a private investigator with a select clientele - 'Super's',those with special powers who are a part of everyday society. He reluctantly takes on a case to investigate the alleged disappearance of Doc Arts patients despite the general skepticism and his dislike of the man. Just as Moore decides to quit he witnesses a gruesome death and Moore is determined to find the callous murderer.
Bob is a traditional PI in a nontraditional world and the juxtaposition is entertaining. As a 'tippy', an ordinary human, his job pits him against surveillance targets who have the ability to kill him without breaking a sweat. Bob uses a combination of his wits and some handy gadgets created by Ted (The Tinkerer) to do his job. However I was a little disappointed that Bob doesn't actually do a lot of investigating in this story, he hands out trackers and consults the Mind (a super computer) but solves the case by accident. In the Afterword, Andry explains that he could have stretched the book out by having Moore follow Doc Arts but regarded it as 'filler' where as I would regard it as crucial investigation. There are never any suspects or red herrings in play which are vital elements of a mystery. For me, the mystery fell flat because no-one else was invested in the outcome - no wrongly accused suspect, no one in imminent danger, no surviving victim needing closure - the victims were incidental. The story would have had more impact if the outcome threatened Bob personally, for example his ex-wife Gale or assistant Khan could have been at immediate risk if the mystery was not solved.
Despite the flawed mystery, Bob Moore: No Hero is an entertaining novella - the characters are appealing and the general premise is engaging. Offered for free download , it lends itself to a series and Andry has announced plans to release a full length Bob Moore novel in August, which I'd certainly be interested in reading. ( )