Lesa's Book Critiques: Paranormal Payback, ed. by Jim Butcher & Kerrie L. Hughes

 Lesa's Book Critiques: Paranormal Payback, ed. by Jim Butcher & Kerrie L. Hughes

FFB Review: Dance On His Grave by Sylvia Dickey Smith

 

After the sudden death of her brother Warren due to a traffic accident, Sidra Smart comes to the small southeast Texas town of Orange to permanently close his private investigator business. Recently divorced after thirty years of a mind-numbing marriage, Sidra knows absolutely nothing about private investigations or running her brother’s business with the intriguing moniker of "The Third Eye: Intuitive Investigations." While she isn't sure what she is going to do with her life, she knows that she isn't going to take over and run Warren's business and she isn't going back to her old life as a preacher's wife.

 

Somewhere during the course of that thirty-year marriage that started when she was so very young, she lost her identity. It is something she wants back and just isn't sure how to get it back. She isn't alone with that problem as the visibly agitated blonde woman makes clear by showing up while Sidra is paying bills and clearing mail in Warren's old storefront office. The woman's name is Jewell Stone and Warren had just barely opened a file for her. With Warren dead, Jewell expects Sidra to take over and help her. Jewell is haunted by nightmares of a naked woman who she thinks might have been killed by her father, Roy Manly back when Jewell was a child. If the memories that come out of Jewel and her emotional pain aren't disturbing enough, while Jewell cries and talks, Sidra sees a small blue flame appear in the air over Jewell's head for a few seconds. Despite all the reasons not to get involved, Sidra eventually begins to investigate a sinister world of child abuse and possible murder far different than her experiences of bake sales and back stabbing church politics as a preacher's wife.

 

This is an intense read with frequent and very graphic recounts of horrible child abuse and molestation. Such scenes are intense and very disturbing and will no doubt upset a number of readers. Author Sylvia Dickey Smith details the horrific abuse over and over again to various parties throughout the entire novel while occasionally adding a little new information at the various tellings. After awhile, the graphic abuse and molestations become a bit much and could distract readers from a compelling story.

 

This is a shame because the main story is quite strong and would move the story along very well if allowed to do so instead of being stopped by the detailed abuse materials. The novel revolves around a thirty-year-old murder case and accompanying arson in the small town of Orange as well as Sidra's efforts to find herself. During the course of investigating the case, we learn quite a lot about Sidra, her relationship with her former Pastor and husband as well as the congregation, a fellow private investigator George Leger, Sidra's rather eccentric Aunt Annie, and numerous other characters along with a strong slice of life in that shadowy land full of mystique and mystery where Texas and Louisiana meet.

 

Evil walks in many forms in this intense novel. Full of suspense, interesting characters and a heroine trying to find herself once again, the novel delivers on all levels while disturbing repeatedly with the constant scenes of abuse and molestation. Few readers will find this a relaxing read but all will certainly find it suspenseful, intense, and not easily put down.

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4jEyIfT

 

 

Material supplied by the author in exchange for my objective review.

 

 

Kevin R. Tipple © 2007, 2012, 2026

Lesa's Book Critiques: January Treasures in My Closet

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Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Ghost-Hunting for Dummies by Zak Bagans

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Ghost-Hunting for Dummies by Zak Bagans:   Reviewed by Jeanne   Yes, there is a “for Dummies” book for just about anything, including Ghost-Hunting. Bagans, the host for Gho...

Lesa's Book Critiques: Best Paranormal – A New Lease on Death by Olivia Blacke

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Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Paranormal Ranger: A Navajo Investigator’s Search for the Unexplained by Stanley Milford, Jr.

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Paranormal Ranger: A Navajo Investigator’s Se...:   Reviewed by Jeanne Stanley Milford, Jr. was born to a Navajo father and Cherokee mother who divorced when he was a child.   Growing up...

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Nevermore: Frugal Wizard, Tumbling Girl, Episode Thirteen

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Nevermore: Frugal Wizard, Tumbling Girl, Episode ...:   Reported by Rita The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England  by Brandon Sanderson follows an amnesiac wizard on a ti...

FFB Review: Joyland by Stephen King

 

From the massive archive…

 

Devin Jones thought he had plans for the summer of 73. He was a student at The University of New Hampshire as was the love of his young life, Wendy Keegan. Both have university jobs thanks to the work-study program and they do everything together. Everything that is except “it.” Devin Jones thought the summer of 73 would go the same way as the summer of 72 had with both of them working on campus, her in the library and he in the Commons Cafeteria. And maybe, finally, after months of waiting and the occasional almost, “it” would finally happen. That was his plan until Wendy announced that she and her friend Renee would be working that summer at Filenes in Boston. That was not the only bombshell she threw devastating Devin. Wendy also announced that maybe the break would do them good as she said “’I’ll miss you like mad, but really, Dev, we could probably use some time apart.” (Page 13)

While he wasn’t anywhere near to accepting it, Devin knew what was most likely the end of their relationship when he heard it. He also knew that a summer of mopping floors and carting dishes was not something he wanted to in the first place. With no Wendy around things would be even worse. Then, thanks to a magazine ad, Devin Jones applied to work at Joyland. The amusement park in North Carolina near the beach is far away from school, Wendy Keegan, and is a chance for Devin Jones to do something entirely different for a few short months. A place that sells fun to those who pass its gates, it also was the scene of a brutal murder long ago.

It is also a place when Devin Jones will achieve redemption in a sense. Author Stephen King has written an incredible and deeply moving novel that tells the powerful story of one man and the lives he touched at Joyland. His actions and the reverberations of those actions fundamentally changed the course of nearly everyone’s life that he came into contact with that summer.

It wouldn’t be a Stephen King novel if it wasn’t called “a horror story” as it is on the back cover synopsis. Beyond the fact that the book is published by Hard Case Crime, don’t let that characterization of Joyland fool you. There is a touch of the paranormal here but it is one that won’t scare you though, by rights, maybe it should just a little. Something unexplained by rational objective thought is at work here, but, it never comes across scary to the reader.

And there is certainly, as befitting the publisher, a complex mystery at foot. More than one and they will be gradually revealed over the nearly 300 page book. That mystery is a major player in the book and yet a small player for much of the novel until the final forty pages that solve the mystery and much more. This is a novel that moves slowly and gradually and takes time to develop the primary theme.

At its heart, Joyland is a book of remembrance of things past. How what we did at 21, both big things as well as little things, will have far different meaning to us at 40, 50, and beyond. It is only later in life, decades later even, when looking back we realize how things changed at different points in our lives. Sometimes we learn dark truths when we are young. Sometimes not until we are far older. But, as the years pass and the ability to see things clearly sharpens by way of hindsight, it becomes obvious how a point here and a point there changed everything. Such is the case here in this slow moving complex tale by Stephen King. Joyland is one of those rare books that will fundamentally mean different things to readers of different ages and different perspectives. One thing that all should be able to agree on is the fact that there is deeply moving story telling at work in the book.

 

Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano, Texas Public Library System.

 

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2013, 2016, 2023

Lesa's Book Critiques: SANDIE HERRON’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2022

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Dru's Book Musings New Releases: Week of December 25, 2022

 Dru's Book Musings New Releases: Week of December 25, 2022 

Lesa's Book Critiques: HIGH SPIRITS BY CAROL J. PERRY

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Short Story Wednesday Review: Shifting Is For The Goyim by Elizabeth Zelvin

From the massively magnificent archive…

 

It is worth noting that many of the reviews give away most, if not all, of the details behind the story. This review absolutely does not. This review, unlike many others out there at Amazon and elsewhere, is safe to read without ruining this very good novelette.

Far different in style and tone from the Bruce Kohler Series written by author Elizabeth Zelvin is Shifting Is For The Goyim recently released by Untreed Reads. Emerald Love is a singer and a good one. Thanks to Michael, her boyfriend and fellow musician, she has had several number one hits. Immensely popular she is now one of those one name artists such as Cher, Madonna, etc.  She’s come a long way from her home in Pumpkin Falls, New York.

With crowd leaving for their homes, she is now on the way to her family home for Passover. She’s missed the last five by way of being on tour, but there is no missing this one. For many reasons she will wish she had in this tale of the paranormal, death, faith, and family relationships.

This is a sometimes dark story of pain and loss for different from the often humorous Bruce Kohler Series. It is also incredibly good and features a complicated character, Emerald Love, who is very worthy of her own novel series. One hopes that such might be in the works based on this very complicated and very short mystery tale. 

Material supplied by the author in exchange for my objective review.

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2012, 2015, 2022

Jeanne Reviews: Midnight Riot aka The Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

Peter Grant is a young mixed race probationary constable in London.  He and his friend Lesley are hoping for better assignments but at the moment they’re on call as extra warm bodies when needed—as they are one blustery evening when a body turns up in Covent Gardens. The somewhat inebriated discoverer of said body believed at first it was just a passed out drunk until he noticed it was missing a notable feature—namely, its head.

While trying to not freeze to death waiting on the Murder Investigation Team to do its work, Peter catches sight of a potential witness to the crime, one Nicholas Wallpenny.  He begins with his best interview techniques and the gentleman turns out to be a veritable fount of information:  he saw the whole thing and can describe exactly how the crime took place and even offer a description of the murderer.

There’s just one problem:  Nicholas is a ghost. Which he proves by vanishing.

The next thing Peter know is that he’s been assigned to Inspector Nightingale as… well, an apprentice.  Because apparently ghosts are real, magic is real, and the Things That Go Bump in the Night are also real—and dangerous. Nightingale is a one man department, so it’s not exactly a plum assignment but since the alternative was the Case Progression Unit (in which one sits and types in reports for other officers all day), Peter is willing to give it a shot.

He’s going to be for a heck of a ride.

By the way, Nightingale is a wizard—not like Harry Potter.

One of the first things I noticed was how funny this book is.  It’s not slapstick, but wry observations on London, the police, and life in general.  I also got caught up in the storylines, even if sometimes I didn’t quite understand what was going on. (The titular Rivers of London have personas and complicated relationships.)  I really wanted to know how it all was going to turn out.  Aaronovitch has a strong grasp of folklore and the history of London which he uses to full advantage.  I was also enchanted by the mini-tours of various sections of London as commented on by Peter.  It reminds me a bit of the wonderful Christopher Fowler series The Peculiar Crimes Unit aka Bryant and May.

Fun and addictive, I think I’ll be reading the whole series.

 Rivers of London aka Midnight Riot 

Moon Over Soho 

Whispers Under Ground 

Broken Homes 

Foxglove Summer 

The Hanging Tree 

Lies Sleeping 

False Value 

Amongst Our Weapons (April 2022)

 

Dru's Book Musings New Releases: Week of July 24, 2022

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Lesa's Book Critiques: THE FOOL DIES LAST BY CAROL MILLER

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Dru's Book Musings New Releases: Week of March 20, 2022

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Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovich

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovich: Reviewed by Kristin Peter Grant has seen some weird stuff in his time with the police. When Peter first started as a probationary cons...

Scott's Take: The Queen of Swords by R.S. Belcher (Golgatha Series Book 3)

The Queen of Swords by R.S. Belcher is the third book in the Golgotha series and marks a change in how the series has been written to this point. Instead of the usual main characters, Maude Stapleton and her ancestor, Anne Bonny, are front and center. These two are very different from each other in many ways and are far different than the previous main characters.

 

The book alternates between Maude and Anne to tell their respective stories in different time periods while also explaining the history of the Daughters of Lilith. Anne Bonny is a pirate queen in 1721 who is looking for treasure that is supposed to be hidden in a lost city of Bones located in Africa. More than one hundred years later, her ancestor, Maude Stapleton, is in the year of 1870 and is trying to rescue her kidnapped daughter during a war between the Daughters of Lilith and the Sons of Typhoon.

 

The Queen of Swords leaves most of the main characters and side characters of the previous books out of things as it focuses Maude Stapleton and the actions of her ancestor which have had an impact on Maude’s time period and on Maude. While the book is a good read in the series, this reader had grown attached to numerous characters in the earlier books and missed their presence. This third book ties into key plot points of previous books and thus the series should be read in order to fully understand what is happening here in this read.

 

The hallmarks of the series in terms of action, mystery, some horror, and some humor are present in a large setting that travels countries and continents while introducing many new characters that could be possibly used in future books of the series. This is a book that is focused a lot on world building and lore to setup the next book in the series. This book further details and provides perspective about some previous events while also charting a course forward for Maude that is focused on her letting go of  the past and becoming somebody important in the fate of the world.

 

This book is weaker than the previous two in the series. Especially in the final eighty or so pages where it appears that characters are making questionable decisions and last second elements are magically added. One gets the feeling the author had one ending in mind and changed the ending at the last minute without going back through and setting anything up that would foreshadow the abrupt changes. It is clearer that decisions made in the last book and the previous book will have horrible consequences that should have been avoided, but the plot must be fulfilled.

 

The Queen of Swords by R.S. Belcher is a good read but I personally did not enjoy it as much as the first two. This is due to two main reasons. The first is the fact that I missed the previous characters and kept hoping they would show up. The second reason is that some plot based decisions were handled contrary to how the characters had been established and by the end of the book were doing things that made no sense. Despite all of that, overall, this is a good read in a long running series that tries to do things differently and, for the most part, succeeds.

 

My reviews of the previous books in the series are:

The Six Gun Tarot (July 2020)

The Shotgun Arcana (September 2020)

The Queen of Swords (You Are here)

The Ghost Dance Judgement (library request filed) 

  

The Queen of Swords  (Golgotha Book 3)

R. S. Belcher

https://www.tor.com/author/r-s-belcher/

Tom Doherty Associates (Tor)

https://www.tor.com/2017/05/24/excerpts-rs-becher-the-queen-of-swords/

May 2017

ISBN# 978-0-7653-9009-7

Hardback (also available in audio, digital, and paperback formats)A

366 Pages 

 

My reading copy came from the Downtown Branch of the Dallas Public Library System. 

 

Scott A. Tipple © 2020

Scott's Take: Midnight Riot (Rivers of London Book One) by Ben Aaronovitch

Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch is the first book in The Rivers of London series. The book is called Midnight Riot in the USA, but it is called The Rivers of London in the UK where it was first published. This book is the first in a series of books and graphic novels starring Peter Grant who is an apprentice wizard and cop. Very soon Peter Grant is going to be shuffled off to a unit that handles paperwork only due to his academic background and never going to be allowed to catch any criminals directly. This all changes when he is standing guard at the scene of a murder and a witness to the murder decides to tell Peter what happened. Except the witness did not see much and is a ghost.

 

Peter Grant soon finds himself as apprentice to Inspector Thomas Nightingale. The inspector leads a small unit of cops that are wizards too. The unit is very secretive and includes members from other services. While he gradually learns the identities of a few of the other members, it is primarily up to him and Nightingale to solve the murder while trying to make sure the public does not know there is someone or something using magic to kill people.

 

This book is part mystery, part fantasy, part politics, and part police procedural, all with a British setting and pacing. The setting of London is involved heavily and becomes a character in its own in the read. A read that is full of action, humor, and secrets. There is lots of foreshadowing and things that are a setup for the next novel in the series titled, Moon Over Soho. Unfortunately, that title is only available in eBook through my library and the hold is going to take quite some time.

 

Peter Grant relies more on his police training than his magic at this point in his life because he is still learning and he is a cop first. If the idea of cops having to see a ghost judge to get a warrant to arrest a ghost seems fun to you then this is a book for you. 

 

Midnight Riot (Rivers of London Book One)

Ben Aaronovitch

https://www.benaaronovitch.com/

Del Rey Mass Market (Ballentine Books)

http://www.delreybooks.com

February 2011

ISBN 978-0-345-52425-6

Paperback (also available in audio, eBook, and Hardback formats)

322 Pages (includes 12-page excerpt from Moon Over Soho)

My reading copy came from the Central or Downtown Branch of the Dallas Public Library System. 

 

 

Scott A. Tipple ©2020

Scott's Take: Shotgun Arcana by R. S. Belcher

 

Shotgun Arcana by R. S. Belcher is the sequel to the first book in the series, The Six-Gun Tarot. Mutt, Jim, Sheriff Highfather, and company are back in this wild west fantasy tale. In this read, the Deputies and the Sheriff face off against a rogue angel and his army of serial killing cannibal cultists who are searching for a magical skull. If they can get the skull it means the end of all life on Earth as well as every other word.  If the heroes of Golgotha-- the Deputies and the Sheriff along with a few others-- fail to stop the cult, no one will survive.

 

The tale is told slightly different as each chapter from the perspective of the hero is followed by a backstory chapter focused on one of the thirty-two cultists. Each of the flashback chapter is used to explain the backstory of the cultist and why this horrible person needs to be killed. This book also includes several flashbacks from Golgotha local angel who now goes by the name Bick. Each one of those flashbacks is its own chapter as well. Somewhere more than a third of the book is therefore a flashback of one type pr another.

 

 

Shotgun Arcana is set a year after the events in The Six-Gun Tarot. This means those events and what has happened these past twelve months have further changed these characters. For example, Jim has gained confidence and has fully embraced his inheritance of the magical eye and is seeking to become the master of it. Another example is the fact that Bick no longer has faith in the goodness of men and seeks to control the citizens of Golgotha. There are many other changes which should be saved for readers and not revealed here.

The banter is as great as ever as they discuss and reference events that happened outside of this book. One example is where folks had to be evacuated after giant spiders came up the drains into bathtubs in tremendous numbers. When an event happens in this book that results in many people being forced to leave a building, one of the people starts screaming about hoping it is not giant spiders again.  

 

Everything that I loved about the first book is included once again in this series that absolutely must be read in order.  Shotgun Arcana is good, but there are a lot of plot points that are obviously included only to create the next book in the series. They serve no purpose in this book. That was a bit annoying as much of this book is used to create that third book titled, The Queen of Swords. 

 

 

Shotgun Arcana

R. S. Belcher

https://www.tor.com/author/r-s-belcher/

Tom Doherty Associates (Tor)

https://www.tor.com/2014/09/03/the-shotgun-arcana-excerpt-r-s-belcher/

September 2014

ISBN# 978-0-7653-7458-5

Hardback (also available in digital and paperback formats)

400 Pages

 

 

 

My reading copy came from the Downtown Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.

 

Scott A. Tipple © 2020