Archives

All posts for the month October, 2020

GOD OF BROKEN THINGS – Cameron Johnston

Posted by Daniel on October 30, 2020
Posted in: SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

The city Sethis is a ruined wasteland after the events of the previous book. Edrin Walker, a mage, survived the destruction of Sethis – though only just barely, as he managed to control the mind of the monster sent by the Skallgrim to destroy the city. Now Walker has a chip on his shoulder and he sets out to take down the mages who were behind the vicious attack. He’d also like to take care of the Skallgrim as well and he’ll get that opportunity – maybe a little sooner than he hoped.

The Skallgrin are gathering an army in the mountains just north of Sethis, readying to invade inland (which would completely eradicate Sethis). Walker has to gather his own army of sorts – a group of washed-up mercenaries and soldiers who have seen better days. It’s not the most trustworthy group of soldiers and companions, but Walker only needs them to provide him enough time to attack the minds of those in command. A lot of blood will be spilled and a lot of pain delivered and the end results may not have the desired outcome.

This was one heck of a fun read.

Edrin Walker is not the typical sort of ‘reluctant hero’ you find in most modern fantasies of this ilk.  He’s a tyrant. He’s a pretty mean s.o.b., but he’s the kind of guy you definitely wanting fighting on your side, rather than against you. And it’s that anger and – evil? – that makes him exciting to follow.  He’s also incredibly tough to take down (as evidenced in the first book).

One of my biggest problems with the first book (which I enjoyed immensely) was that Walker was pushed beyond a believable amount and his nearly superhuman actions made him less admirable. The challenge here for Walker is nearly as great (he’s about to take on an entire army) but author Cameron Johnston toned down the rhetoric, without taking away from the challenge, and I was more immersed in this story and the action than I was before.

The story is pretty simple – Edrin Walker is not a complicated man and the goal is pretty straightforward as well. But Johnston’s story-telling, combined with the delicious fun of Walker’s personality. makes this a real joy to read.

Looking for a good book? God of Broken Things by Cameron Johnston, the second book in the Age of Tyranny series, is exciting fantasy.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

* * * * * *

God of Broken Things

author: Cameron Johnston

series: Age of Tyranny #2

publisher: Angry Robot

ISBN: 0857668099

paperback, 432 pages

THE SENSATION – Amanda Bridgeman

Posted by Daniel on October 29, 2020
Posted in: MYSTERY, SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

I feel like Steve Martin in The Jerk … I want to hold this up and run around saying, “The new Amanda Bridgeman book is out! The new Amanda Bridgeman book is here!” I have very much been looking forward to the release of this next volume in the Salvi Brentt series.

Detective Salvi Brentt is one tough detective.  She’s still recovering from her ordeal in the previous book (The Subjugate), and as we meet up with her, we learn that she has asked for a new partner because she’s developed a personal relationship with Mitch Grenville.  She’s also avoiding the Solme Complex where one of the Subjugates that Salvi used to get herself out of a life-threatening situation is asking for her. But Brentt has a more urgent situation to attend to.

A body recently discovered in an old warehouse was an undercover cop and Brentt and her fellow homicide detectives learn about a highly secret series of nightclubs where people move up a level (literally) by invitation only until they get to the ceiling. There are drugs involved, called Flyte and Fyte, but their connection to the nightclubs is unknown. And as if a dead cop wasn’t enough motivation, the Chief of Police’s daughter is missing, last seen entering the nightclub.

There isn’t time to set someone up to get inside, the way the now-dead copy had been vetted, so the homicide department will try to get someone inside the old-fashioned way … with a beautiful woman, bored with the ordinary and dropping money as if it didn’t mean anything. Salvi Brentt. But it won’t be easy, and this is an organization that’s already killed one undercover cop. And what Brentt learns as she moves up in the club scares her more than she ever expected.

One of the things I really love about this book is how author Amanda Bridgeman gives us a (now) familiar character but gives us a new story and manages to tie the two books together with some important plot points.

I really love Bridgeman’s characters. Everyone we meet feels so real and, as I mentioned in my review of The Subjugate, these characters have human flaws, and their flaws as as interesting (or more so) as their strengths.

The setting of slightly futuristic, with high tech drugs and sex being traded and sold, is absolutely where we’re headed as a culture, and the grittiness of our setting oozes naturally – Bridgeman doesn’t have to emphasize anything because we see it.

I would have liked to have seen more of the Brentt/Grenville relationship, but it didn’t make sense in the context of this story, so I’m glad Bridgeman didn’t force it.

The ending sets up a dark future for Brentt. It’s not a cliff-hanger but it will have you anxious to read on.

This is a sci-fi mystery series that I am very excited about and Salvi Brentt will be a much talked about character in the years to come.

Looking for a good book? Amanda Bridgeman’s The Sensation is here! Amanda Bridgeman’s The Sensation is here!  Read it now!

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

* * * * * *

The Sensation

author: Amanda Bridgeman

series: Salvi Brentt #2

publisher: Angry Robot

ISBN: 0857668560

paperback, 400 pages

BASKETFUL OF HEADS – graphic novel

Posted by Daniel on October 27, 2020
Posted in: Dark Fantasy/Horror, GRAPHIC NOVEL, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

I haven’t read very many graphic novels lately, but when I saw this available for review, I was quick to get a copy. I think Joe Hill is one of the best writers of horror/dark fiction writing today.

June Branch is visiting her boyfriend, Liam, during the last weekend of the summer.  Liam is just finishing his summer job as a deputy on an island in Maine, where the main part of his job is handing out tickets and directing traffic to the tourists. Just as Liam clocks out of his last day and heads to the sheriff’s house for a picnic, some prisoners have escaped from a work gang.  The sheriff sends Liam on to the house to look after the women while he rounds up the prisoners.

But it’s not a quick round-up and a group of criminals break into the house and take Liam away.  It’s now up to June to protect herself and to rescue her boyfriend.  She grabs an old Viking axe from the sheriff’s weapon collection which, unbeknownst to anyone, is magical. When she is attacked by one of the intruders, she swings that magical axe and takes the criminal’s head off.  The head rolls away but keeps on talking, unaware at first that its not attached to its body. The head just talks away and June listens. The heads gives her an idea as to where she might find Liam. As she goes, she meets and decapitates more of the criminals, getting new information from them along the way – though not all of it necessarily true.  Decapitating a criminal doesn’t mean they suddenly start telling only truths.

There are some surprises in store for June and Liam, and the criminals are not quite what they at first seem, nor are the caretakers of the community, and June will have a lot to work through in order to survive the ordeal, and she’ll do it with a basketful of talking heads.

This was really a lot of fun.  It’s dark (there’s a young girl cutting off heads with an ancient axe!) but it is infused with humor that really takes the edge off. Joe Hill is really good at building a story. He understands dramatic structure and works it well. He adds in his unique brand of horror and humor and makes the absurd seem perfectly natural. You actually feel satisfied after reading Hill’s work!

This is a graphic novel, so the art is integral to telling the story and the work here by Leomacs really fits the story well.

I’ve read a few good graphic novels this year and it feels sort of reassuring that this form of literature is producing some great reads.

Looking for a good book? Basketful of Heads by Joe Hill is dark, horrific, delightful and fun.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

* * * * * *

Basketful of Heads

author: Joe Hill

artist: Leomacs

publisher: DC Comics

ISBN: 1779502974

hardcover, 184 pages

BROKEN SHADOW – Jaime Fenn

Posted by Daniel on October 26, 2020
Posted in: SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

I wasn’t a big fan of the first book in this series, but I already had the second book loaded on my Kindle and decided I would move forward with it, keeping an open mind as best as possible.  Fortunately, for me, I did enjoy this book more than the previous volume.

Rhia Harlyn has her eye in the skies as she studies and reports on her observations about the nature of their world and the sun.  But this gets her in a bit of trouble. She is accused of heresy for her ideas and her life’s work will be destroyed. She may be put to death as well.

Rhia’s brother, Etyan, is still kind of a big goof, not living up to his responsibilities (he is heir to the Harlyn estate) as his transformation (see last book) has him half Skykin. But since his girlfriend, Dej, is all Skykin, this isn’t a problem for him. The two of them have a quiet place in the forest where they can travel to and from the Skylands as they please. (The Skylands are giants shades in the sky to protect the earth, and where the Skykin dwell.)

Rhia’s research brings her in more direct contact with the Skykin, who have some knowledge and answers to some of Rhia’s questions – proving her research correct (not that it will help her with the backward thinking of her society). But some of the answers are to questions she hadn’t even considered asking, which could lead to disaster.

I definitely felt much more connected to this story and to the characters in this book, and could follow the events much better. I actually became interested in the science of what was happening, and the obvious correlations to our own distrust of science throughout history (and calling scientists heretics for reporting something counter to common belief).

Despite my renewed interest, I still felt that the book moved too slowly.  I recognize that this comes from reading a lot of (too many?) best-seller-style books, or action-style narratives, but non-the-less, I was still bored off and on here.  Where did 400+ pages go in this plot?

At the moment I am up in the air (pun intended) as to whether or not I would request the next volume in the series (assuming there will be one).

Looking for a good book? Broken Shadow by Jaine Fenn improves on the story begun in Hidden Sun and becomes much more interesting, but still takes a bit too long to get through.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

* * * * * *

Broken Shadow

author: Jaine Fenn

series: Shadowlands #2

publisher: Angry Robot

ISBN: 085766803X

paperback, 432 pages

WOVEN – Michael Jensen & David Powers King

Posted by Daniel on October 23, 2020
Posted in: SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized, YA. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

The literary world, especially YA, is filled with romantic fantasies – I assume it’s what the publishers see the readers wanting.  It means that in order to stand out, the story needs to be unique and engaging, and Woven, by Michael Jensen and David Powers King does just that.

Nels is a knight in all the true sense of the term.  Tall, strong, and honorable.  He also happens to be dead. But the spirit of Nels is everything the man was.

Tyra is a princess. She’s heir to the kingdom, and she’s a spoiled little brat. She also happens to be the only person who is able to see Nels’ ghost.

Tyra doesn’t want anything to do with Nels, but he’s relentless (because he needs a connection and she’s the only one who can help and he needs to to settle the matter of his death. There appears to be more behind his murder than at first believed, and Nels and Tyra will need to work together, leaving the castle that Tyra calls home, to discover that there’s a bond between them – more than just the fact that she’s the only one who can see him.

The writing here is fresh and exciting and the characters are everything young readers want in their fantasies … a dead knight and a beautiful princess who shows some grit.

And then there’s the magic. I remember smiling when the reason for the title became apparent – the magic here comes from a magic needle and the literal weaving of magic. This was so clever and seemed so natural as Jensen and King brought it all together.

Libraries and bookstores are filled with books like this … fantasies of knights and princesses, ghosts and magic, love that takes some time to develop, and some nasty bad guys that most be vanquished.  This book stands out by finding a way to be original and being fun to read.

Looking for a good book? Woven by Michael Jensen and David Powers King is a delightful YA fantasy that will appeal to young readers. You will definitely want more.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

* * * * * *

Woven

authors: Michael Jensen and David Powers King

publisher: Scholastic Press

ISBN: 0545685729

hardcover, 352 pages

ACROSS THE GREEN GRASS FIELDS – Seanan McGuire

Posted by Daniel on October 21, 2020
Posted in: Dark Fantasy/Horror, SF/FANTASY, YA. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

It’s not a secret that I’m a tremendous fan of Seanan McGuire’s work and no matter what kind of fantasy fiction you might like to read, McGuire probably writes it … and very well. Her Wayward Children series came on the scene in 2016 and everyone of them has been a really great read.  And this, I think, is the best of them all so far.   This story is beautiful and powerful and and dark and real. McGuire takes us on an absolutely perfect ride in Across the Green Grass Fields.

Regan is a delightful young girl.  She is friendly and loving and loved in return. Her parents always promised themselves that they would not keep secrets from her, as long as she asked for the truth. Regan asks and is told a truth about a personal, chromosomal issue issue that her parents learned when she was born. She takes it in stride, but makes one critical error … she tells a friend. And no friendship at this age level can withstand the knowledge of something seriously personal.  Still Regan isn’t looking to escape a bad family life or even seriously wanting to leave her friends, but when a door appears in an unexpected place, Regan steps through.

Regan finds herself in a land where centaur’s are farmers and unicorns their cattle. Regan is found by a centaur and brought back to their community – delighted at the glory they will have being the finders of a human.  The presence of a human in this land always means one thing … something bad is about to happen and they will be there until the problem is solved.

Regan spends years with the centaurs and avoids the Queen’s spies who are looking to bring Regan to the throne on her own terms.  But as the queen doesn’t get her way, she makes life miserable for the centaurs.

Leaving her friends behind, Regan begins a yellow-brick-road-like journey to the queen, picking up a few unusual friends along the way. And of course, things are not what they seem when she reaches the queen.

How is possible that someone can put SO much into so brief a book (brief in page count). I felt as though I read 700 pages, given how much happened and the emotional journey we rode.

There was such uniqueness to our protagonist Regan.  So often in these characters are cut from the same cloth – horrible parents (if there are any parents at all in the picture), lots of anger, confusion over everything going on around them – but Regan breaks that mold, and the book is so much richer for it.

It’s a Wayward Children book, so not surprisingly it takes a dark turn, but constantly I had the thought ‘this is real’ – meaning that it made absolute sense.

This is easily one of the best fantasies and best YA books I’ve read this year.  Maybe in the past three years.

Looking for a good book? Seanan McGuire’s Across the Green Grass Fields is brilliant, sometimes dark, beautiful fantasy – possibly a perfect book.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

* * * * * *

Across the Green Grass Fields

author: Seanan Mcguire

series: Wayward Children #6

publisher: Tor

ISBN: 1250213592

hardcover, 176 pages

RUNNING WITH RHINOS – Ed Warner

Posted by Daniel on October 19, 2020
Posted in: MEMOIR, NON-FICTION. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Have you ever gone to a friend’s house to see photos and hear stories about their recent vacation?  You reel with laughter at their exploits and gasp at their near-death experiences and at the end of the telling someone says, “You should write that down.  It would make a great book!”  This is that book.

But what we often don’t realize when we tell someone to “write it down, it would make a great book” is that part of what was fun about it was knowing the story-telling and hearing them tell it, complete with nuances to keep the listener interested.  But for the average reader, not knowing the author, these stories typically don’t have an impact.  This definitely did not.

Abridged from the lengthy description of the book on Goodreads we get:

“In Running with Rhinos: Stories from a Radical Conservationist, Warner takes readers along as he weasels his way into becoming volunteer ground support for the International Rhino Foundation’s Rhino Conservancy Project, or “Rhino Ops,” in Zimbabwe. It is gritty, sweaty, sometimes scary, and exhilarating work. Warner succeeds in telling a remarkable story of the extraordinary bonds between humans—and their dedication to protecting endangered animals—all while weaving eye-opening stories about the flora, fauna, geology, geography, and politics of sub-Saharan Africa.”

I agree that we see Warner “weasel his way into becoming volunteer ground support” but very much disagree about the weaving of eye-opening stories about flora, fauna, and the rest.

I was looking forward to reading a book about rhino conservation and the efforts to protect these magnificent beasts.  Any other information about Africa – from politics to the environment – would be a welcome bonus.

What we get, however, is Ed Warner.

This is more memoir, with Warner a shining star in each story, than it is a look at conservation efforts. It is self-indulgent and was a struggle to read. I kept hoping for something more, but it never came.

Looking for a good book? Ed Warner’s Running with Rhinos is a disappointing book.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

* * * * * *

Running with Rhinos: Stories from a Radical Conservationist

author: Ed Warner

publisher: Greenleaf Book Group Press

ISBN: 162634227X

hardcover, 232 pages

ALIVE IN SHAPE AND COLOR – anthology

Posted by Daniel on October 16, 2020
Posted in: SHORT FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Stories inspired by paintings?  That makes a lot of sense.  Stories, many by noted and respected authors, of classic, respected works of art?  This should be really fantastic.

Should be, but isn’t.

In his foreword, editor Lawrence Block notes that this was to be a follow-up to his previous collection (In Sunlight or in Shadow) but that he didn’t get the exciting responses he had hoped, and even after getting commitments, two writers were not able to deliver – including Block himself.  The general impression is that this was not a priority for many involved.

Overall the stories are a bit dull and uninspired.  This is odd, given the quality of the art that inspires them and that each author was able to select the artwork they wished. While I recognize that the artwork served as ‘inspiration’ (which can be very liberally applied) I generally couldn’t make the connection between artwork and story, or I found the connection extremely tenuous.

Some of the authors here are authors whose work I regularly read, which is part of what drew me to the collection.

Two stories stood out for me – one for being quite enjoyable and the other not so much.

Sarah Weinman’s “The Big Town” (inspired by Nude in the Studio by Lilias Torrance Newton) is the final story in the book and is far and away the best piece included.  Aside from the fact that this story is also most obviously connected with the painting among all the stories, the work is moody and reflects the era of the artwork. It’s excellently written and the narrative builds well. My interest in the story was captured early and held on all the way through.  I’ve never read anything by Weinman prior to this, but I’ll be looking for more of her work now.

My least favorite piece was “Truth Comes Out of Her Well to Shame Mankind” by Thomas Pluck (inspired by La Vérité sortant du puits by Jean Léon Gerome). The title was perhaps my favorite, and the title, when taken in context of the painting, was really intriguing.  But my one word comment at the end of the story was … “Yuck.”

David Morrell’s story here is interesting and well done … and nearly memorable (as I looked back through the book to write this review, I remarked “oh yeah, that was okay”).

The rest really were quite average.  Not inspiring and not particularly memorable, which makes the book a bit of a disappointment.

This book contains the following:

Foreword: Before we Begin… by Lawrence Block
“Safety Rules by Jill D. Block
“Pierre, Lucien, and Me” by Lee Child
“Girl With a Fan” by Nicholas Christopher
“The Third Panel” by Michael Connelly
“A Significant Find” by Jeffrey Deaver
“Charlie the Barber” by Joe R. Lansdale
“After Georgia O’Keeffe’s Flower” by Gail Levin
“Ampurdan” by Warren Moore
“Orange is for Anguish, Blue for Insanity” by David Morrell
“Les Beaux Jours” by Joyce Carol Oates
“Truth Comes Our of Her Well to Shame Mankind” by Thomas Pluck
“The Great Wave” by SJ Rozan
“Thinkers” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
“Gaslight” by Jonathan Santlofer
“Blood in the Sun” by Justin Scott
“The Big Town” by Sara Weinman
Permissions

Looking for a good book? Alive in Shape and Color, edited by Lawrence Block, is a collection of stories inspired by works of art, written by noted authors, and should be much more appealing than it is. Overall this was a disappointing and not particularly memorable collection of short stories.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

* * * * * *

Alive in Shape and Color: 17 Paintings by Great Artists and the Stories They Inspired

editor: Lawrence Block

publisher: Pegasus books

ISBN: 1681775611

hardcover, 288 pages

SMOKE AND SUMMONS – Charlie N. Holmberg

Posted by Daniel on October 14, 2020
Posted in: SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Sandis does not have a lot of control over her own life.  She can be turned into a horrible monster and forced to the bidding of an ancient entity that controls her.  Unlike other ‘vessels’ controlled by spirits, Sandis can be inhabited by different spirits – all of them powerful and all of the evil – and do so could be fatal to Sandis.

She tries to run, but how do you escape a spirit that has already transcended time?Her answer is a new-found friend, Rone, a thief who has an unusual ability device that allows him to be immortal for one minute every day.  Rone will need to step up in a big way because Sandis’ spirit master will stop at nothing to get her back.

Honestly, I feel a little bad for Charlie Holmberg.  Her Paper Magician series is SO good, it’s got to be difficult to find something new that will live up to that.  This certainly does not – not yet at least.

The idea is fine, but it’s the characters who don’t really engage the reader this time around.  Sandis … who the heck is she?!  When she’s not being controlled by an ancient spirit (and then has incredible power), she’s a bit of a passive wallflower who is still being subservient, only now to her boyfriend.

And then there’s the ending … well, it’s not really an ending.  This book feels like a prologue to the story that is yet to come.  If you folow my reviews at all, you probably know that I really dislike a book that isn’t actually a book.  A book should have a beginning, a middle, and an end.  This one doesn’t have an end.

I’ve already got the next couple of books in the series on my Kindle, so i will definitely read them.  I know what Holmberg’s writing can be like, so I will hope she reaches up and get’s some of that paper magic for this series as well.

Looking for a good book? Smoke & Summons by Charlie N. Holmberg is the first book in a new series and it doesn’t really engage the reader the way it should, and you will have to go in committing to the series, because it also doesn’t end.

* * * * * *

Smoke & Summons

author: Charlie N. Holmberg

series: Numina Trilogy #1

publisher: 47North

ISBN: 1503905438

hardcover, 332 pages

DEJA VU – Ian Hocking

Posted by Daniel on October 12, 2020
Posted in: SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Saskia Brandt is a detective in the year 2023. She has returned from a vacation to find that her receptionist is dead and she is a leading suspect in the murder. In another part of the city, university professor David Proctor is informed that the very special computer he has on loan from the university is the very last of its kind. Meanwhile, someone has broken into his home. That someone wants Proctor to return to a lab where he wife died 20 years ago … literally, as in travel to the past.

Saskia’s and David’s lives intersect and they must rely on one another as they travel in time and have to choose the right past in order to get the right future.

I’m no stranger to time-travel books, but it takes a really skilled author to handle the subject well – to deal with the complexities of how a past and future are intertwined and how one small change could affect everything, while delivering a story that’s interesting (those complexities aren’t really an interesting story by themselves), with characters who capture our interest and make us want to see them survive.

Author Ian Hocking misses on almost all counts.

The opening chapters, introducing us to the characters and setting up the scenario, were great.  I thought, “Oh wow, this is going to be great! But I promise you that the opening chapters are the most interesting and exciting in the entire book, the rest of this is mostly just a bore.

The series is named after the detective, Saskia Brandt and if most of the book were featuring her, we might have been in decent shape, but she remains a shadow to the less likable and much less interesting David Proctor.

As a reader, I was hooked at the start, so I was Hocking’s audience to lose, and unfortunately, lose me he did with a dull-driving plot, dull characters, and a failure to make even a time travel story interesting.

Looking for a good book? If you’re experiencing Déjà Vu, put the book down and read something else.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

* * * * * *

Déjà Vu

author: Ian Hocking

series: Saskia Brandt #1

publisher: Unsung Stories

ISBN: 1907389229

paperback, 328 pages

THE NATURALS – Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Posted by Daniel on October 9, 2020
Posted in: MYSTERY, Uncategorized, YA. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

I am really sorry it took me so long to read this because this was wonderful.

Cassie is a teen who is a natural at reading people. She’s never really thought of this as an exceptional talent other than how it has served her (winning big at poker, for instance).  But others have noticed, and the FBI comes to recruit her for a special program that they have which uses exceptional teens (such as herself) to solve cold cases.

Cassie is sent to a training facility/school where she studies with other gifted teens but she slowly learns that no one is quite what they seem. Everyone has a secret and some are better at keeping them than others. Yet they will all have to learn to trust one another when a new killer emerges and challenges everything they know.

Author Jennifer Lynn Barnes writes a really exciting, energetic, engaging YA mystery here with just a pinch of supernatural. Characters are key, especially in a YA novel, and Cassie has just the right amount of expected curiosity, angst, anger, and sass. This book is going to hinge on how much you like and understand Cassie, and Barnes gives us exactly what we need to really get behind her.

We have kind of a stock assortment of characters to go along with Cassie, but they are brought to life in such a wonderful manner that we forget they are the classic character types. (And of course many YA readers may not have the reading experience to recognize these characters.)

While the characters are really important, there is also a tremendous story here as well.  We’ve got an intense mystery, well plotted and well suited to these characters.

I really enjoyed this and I will look forward to reading the rest of this series as well as anything else Barnes writes.

Looking for a good book? The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes is exactly what you should read if you are looking for a good YA mystery.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

* * * * * *

The Naturals

author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes

series: The Naturals #1

publisher: Disney-Hyperion

ISBN: 1423168232

hardcover, 308 pages

FROM THE GRAVE – David Housewright

Posted by Daniel on October 7, 2020
Posted in: MYSTERY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Rushmore ‘Mac’ McKenzie is a private investigator, a former police officer, in St. Paul, Minnesota.  He left the force in order to accept the reward money from a case he had solved.  Police officers can’t accept reward money. Now a case from his police days has come back to haunt him.  Literally.

One of Mac’s closest friends, Shelby Dunston, hurries to inform him about an incident she just encountered at a public event in which a local psychic medium was giving readings. One man in the audience got upset and made a scene when he was told that his father, speaking through the medium, told him he would reveal the location of the money if he killed McKenzie. Shelby is certain it’s Mac the medium/spirit was talking about.

It doesn’t take long to realize that the man at the public reading was Ryan Hayes. Ryan was only recently released from prison where he was serving a twenty-five year sentence for his part in an armored car robbery – even though most people agreed he was forced into it by his father, Leland Hayes.  Leland Hayes was shot in the head by second year officer Rush McKenzie. The money, hidden shortly before the shootout, was never found. Now it seems that Leland is trying to enact his revenge from the grave, by putting up a reward (the secret to where he hid his money) in exchange for killing Mac.

A Mac McKenzie novel is not the sort of book where one expects to find a little supernatural element.  But don’t worry … Mac’s not a believer.  Well, not at first, anyway.

We’ve often seen McKenzie investigating in order to help others, so this is a fun treat to see him out there to protect himself and to answer some nagging questions (how does a medium know so much about him?).

We get to experience the world of psychics and mediums (there’s a convention that McKenzie gets to attend), as well as the world of ‘reality television’ – wouldn’t you know … the psychic who delivers the message about ‘killing McKenzie’ also happens to be in the running for a new reality tv show (it helps that she’s an attractive woman).

McKenzie (and the reader) gets sidetracked here and there with some red herrings.  Honestly, I’d feel cheated if that weren’t the case with a McKenzie novel.  But for the most part, this is pretty straight-forward and it’s not as intense a thriller as some of his recent McKenzie novels have been.  Still McKenzie is a great character and this is recommended read for mystery fans.

Looking for a good book? From the Grave by David Housewright is the 17th book in the Mac McKenzie Mystery series, though it can be read as a stand-alone novel. Mystery fans will enjoy this brush with the paranormal.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

* * * * * *

From the Grave

author: David Housewright

series: Mac McKenzie #17

publisher: Minotaur Books

ISBN: 1250212170

hardcover, 320 pages