Melinda thought she and Lance were retired. She thought they could settle down and manage their land. Her visit to the Edge left lingering marks upon her psyche, but overall she was content. Or, at least, finished with monster hunting. However, monsters weren’t finished with her. A stranger waits for her and Lance in Aunt B’s parlor with a request for help. People from the town of Fallows are dying; the town is panicking; and it could be a sickness from the Edge. Melinda resists the call, but in the end, she and Lance saddle up and ride. How could they not? What they find isn’t a disease but an infestation of gremlins, and there are more than anyone knows headed towards another town with unknown intentions. The death toll seems to be poised to rise. Melinda and Lance ride to find out what the gremlins want, and they get themselves in deeper than ever expected. When a gremlin infects a pregnant woman from Fallows, the two take her on a quest for a cure. Will they save her and her child? Can they save other towns from the gremlin horde?

Melinda West and the Gremlin Queen by K.C. Grifant is a fast paced, third person novel set in an alternate, fantastic West. Grifant calls her style Weird West, and it is weird in all the best ways. The book stays tight to Melinda’s point of view, and she’s a good if spare narrator. While this is a fast paced book, the pacing is more even than in the first Melinda West book. The characters and the action worked well; though, Lance needs more character development.