Author: Lucy Banks
Published: October 11, 2022 by Chicago Review Press
Format: Paperback, 288 Pages
Genre: Cozy Paranormal
Series: Dr Ribero's Agency of the Supernatural #5
Blurb: Kester is a wanted man.
After letting the daemon Hrschni escape, Infinite Enterprises are hunting Kester down, and the rest of Ribero’s supernatural agency swear they’ll never forgive him. But who can he trust, Hrschni or Infinite Enterprises?
While on the run, he reencounters the powerful daemon, who uses his powers to take Kester back and forth in time. As a spectre of the past, Kester must learn the truth about his mother while staying one step ahead of agents on his tail. But when Miss Wellbeloved and Ribero are seized by Infinite Enterprises, Kester uncovers a shocking truth, one that may change the course of the entire supernatural world.
In the last and final instalment of Dr Ribero’s Supernatural Agency, it all comes down to Kester and the secrets of the past.
My Opinion: After three years away from this quirky little gem of a series, I didn’t expect to slip so seamlessly back into its world, but I did, and it felt like I had never been away from this old group of friends who just so happen to deal with the spirit world for a living.
All the familiar faces are here: Hrschni, Ribero, Kester, Miss Wellbeloved, and the full, endearing, often maddening roster of colleagues, roommates, and not-quite-smooth love interests. The story flows in a “then and now” dual-timeline that stitches together the present-day chaos with Gretchen, Kester’s enigmatic mother’s, past, who once walked the halls of the School for Supernatural Further Education.
Through a risky time-travel experiment, Kester is given the chance to see the version of his mother he never knew. A woman who was vibrant, powerful, and deeply entangled in the lives of Ribero and Jennifer Wellbeloved. It’s part revelation, part reckoning, and more than a little heartbreak.
Kester has always been the most unlikely of heroes. A reluctant recruit and the softest in the Agency is now at the center of it all. It’s up to him to piece together what’s been hidden, carry forward what matters, and protect both the living and the spirits. And he rises to it, in the most Kester way possible.
This book doesn’t just wrap up the plot threads, but deepens them, weaving in an unexpected backstory that gives weight to the title and meaning to the journey.
Tone-wise, this falls firmly into what I’d call “cozy paranormal.” No grimdark shadows or graphic encounters, just warm, peculiar people navigating the supernatural with heart, charm, and dry wit. You won’t find blistering romantic tension or haunted house horror, but you will find characters you grow to truly care about.
This series deserves a brighter spotlight. And as finales go, this one hits the perfect notes of touching, funny, and quietly profound in the way only the best genre-crossing novels manage to do.
After letting the daemon Hrschni escape, Infinite Enterprises are hunting Kester down, and the rest of Ribero’s supernatural agency swear they’ll never forgive him. But who can he trust, Hrschni or Infinite Enterprises?
While on the run, he reencounters the powerful daemon, who uses his powers to take Kester back and forth in time. As a spectre of the past, Kester must learn the truth about his mother while staying one step ahead of agents on his tail. But when Miss Wellbeloved and Ribero are seized by Infinite Enterprises, Kester uncovers a shocking truth, one that may change the course of the entire supernatural world.
In the last and final instalment of Dr Ribero’s Supernatural Agency, it all comes down to Kester and the secrets of the past.
My Opinion: After three years away from this quirky little gem of a series, I didn’t expect to slip so seamlessly back into its world, but I did, and it felt like I had never been away from this old group of friends who just so happen to deal with the spirit world for a living.
All the familiar faces are here: Hrschni, Ribero, Kester, Miss Wellbeloved, and the full, endearing, often maddening roster of colleagues, roommates, and not-quite-smooth love interests. The story flows in a “then and now” dual-timeline that stitches together the present-day chaos with Gretchen, Kester’s enigmatic mother’s, past, who once walked the halls of the School for Supernatural Further Education.
Through a risky time-travel experiment, Kester is given the chance to see the version of his mother he never knew. A woman who was vibrant, powerful, and deeply entangled in the lives of Ribero and Jennifer Wellbeloved. It’s part revelation, part reckoning, and more than a little heartbreak.
Kester has always been the most unlikely of heroes. A reluctant recruit and the softest in the Agency is now at the center of it all. It’s up to him to piece together what’s been hidden, carry forward what matters, and protect both the living and the spirits. And he rises to it, in the most Kester way possible.
This book doesn’t just wrap up the plot threads, but deepens them, weaving in an unexpected backstory that gives weight to the title and meaning to the journey.
Tone-wise, this falls firmly into what I’d call “cozy paranormal.” No grimdark shadows or graphic encounters, just warm, peculiar people navigating the supernatural with heart, charm, and dry wit. You won’t find blistering romantic tension or haunted house horror, but you will find characters you grow to truly care about.
This series deserves a brighter spotlight. And as finales go, this one hits the perfect notes of touching, funny, and quietly profound in the way only the best genre-crossing novels manage to do.
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