I really enjoyed this book and I want to spend more time with the two central characters, Squib and Vern.

Constable Regence Hooke is as crooked as they come. He hates Squib Moreau and just happens to have a penchant for Squib’s mum Elodie. Vern is very happy as a recluse, thank you very much. As long as his regular delivery of Absolut vodka keeps arriving. All three need the bayou they live around to survive. When Vern encounters Squib on the river one day an unlikely partnership is formed and the pair are soon united against Hooke. But can they outwit the cop determined to have the river for himself? Well given one of them is a dragon, they just might… I don’t read fantasy books, I thought to myself, when I heard that Eoin Colfer had written his first book for adults. But this is about a vodka swilling dragon. I don’t read books about dragons or mogwai or other mythical creatures I said. Turns out I do. And that I find them absolutely entertaining. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that the dragon in question necks vodka like it’s water and has a penchant for Flashdance and Marie Kondo. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that the other hero is a 15 year old boy with questionable morals and only nine fingers, who’s harebrained schemes lands him in the bayou water. Or perhaps it’s just because Highfire is such a warm hearted, entertaining, laugh out loud fun read. Lord Wyvern of Highfire, or Vern to his friend, is the last surviving dragon, or so he believes. He’s not about to embark on any trips to find out otherwise. Retired to the Louisiana river, he’s holed up on a little island, set up with Netflix and his regular supply of 40% proof libations courtesy of Waxman, the aforementioned friend. When he rather rashly rescues Squib from a sticky situation, it starts a chain of events that leads both dragon and boy on a journey where they will discover strengths they didn’t know they had. The book is laced with humour throughout. I often found myself chuckling out loud. Vern is an ornery thing, cussing comes second nature to him and he’s acclimatised to the local lingo. Squib is a boy on the cusp of becoming a man. He’s walking a fine line between being honest and hard working and from getting himself into murkier goings on. He is though, at heart, a boy who loves his mother and wants to do right by her. So when he comes face to face with Vern, he somehow manages to get a job working for the dragon lord. The relationship changes as the two independent creatures come to realise that having friends isn’t that bad after all. It helps that they have a common enemy in Regence Hooke, a sociopath constable with delusions of grandeur, and dreams of running guns straight through Vern’s home. There is a sense of place about the story. I could easily imagine Vern’s shack and Waxman’s houseboat, I could see the tendril of trees and grasses brushing the murky waters of the river. I could see the gators, both in thrall to Vern and determined to try and out him (or eat him), silently slipping into the bayou and follow their eyes as they watched Squib motor up the bayou in his pirogue. I was even narrating the story in my head with a (very bad) southern accent for a while, despite not even knowing if I was pronouncing pirogue correctly. There are references to human folly, gun control, the age of social media and much more, touched on in an light way that highlights the issues that they really are, and is cleverly done by looking at them from the viewpoint of a dragon who has much disdain for the human race. There are lots of little light touches to the book that make it what it is. As I was reading, I kept realising just how much I was enjoying it. I only hope the author had as much fun writing it. Fun and highly entertaining from first page to last. Recommended.

Highly entertaining, I really enjoyed this and am really hoping that there's going to be a sequel. Vern and Squib are such great characters and their adversary Hooke is brilliantly hateful. It's a fast paced, and ridiculous adventure that made me laugh out loud.

I didn't warm to this immediately, but once the central characters were fleshed out a little they really held a place in my heart, particularly Vern, so much so that a few years after reading I'm still hoping for a sequel so I can spend a bit more time with them. I enjoyed the setting in the Louisiana swamps too.

Meet Vern, possibly the last surviving dragon on Earth. All he wants to do is watch cable television, drink vodka and avoid contact with humans, you know with their high-powered weapons and scientists. Then through a sequence of unfortunate circumstances Vern meets Squib. Squib, maybe a delinquent, but he has a good heart. He wants to make his mum proud and earn some money. His interactions with Vern, at first wary and a little hostile become more conciliatory and then respectful and friendly particularly as they discover they have the same enemy. In this story it is the humans who are the monsters, the corrupt sheriff, the drug runners and the crime lords. This is Eoin Colfer's first foray into adult fantasy and will not disappoint. If you have read Artemis Fowl you will recognise the sense of humour, yet the language used and the story is definitely ad