A tense, thrilling paranormal adventure with a striking cast.
A supernatural crime novel set in the 1940s focuses on a private detective.
This series opener begins in 1947. The narrator of the story, Rafael Jones, has set up shop as a private investigator in New York City. Rafael has an extensive background in law enforcement (both civilian and military), and he is eager to strike out on his own. No sooner has he put the sign up for Harmony Investigations than he is approached by a British woman named Clara Thomas. Clara has been sent to persuade Rafael to work for Interpol. She is a sharp woman, with a degree in mathematics from Oxford, who knows how to handle herself in a fight. She can also fly a plane. Rafael doesn’t need that much convincing, and he soon learns that working with Clara will be fun. It isn’t long before the two become more than mere colleagues. The duo starts working on a case involving stolen Russian art and other valuables. To complicate matters, a number of bodies seem to be connected to the thefts. Rafael must also cater to an old acquaintance: a wealthy playboy, inventor, and industrialist named Eugene Marshall, who lives and works in the Empire State Building. Eugene is concerned with the recent resignation of two of his employees who have joined a cult known as the Order of Repentance. When Rafael investigates the organization, he runs into much more trouble than he bargained for. Thanks to the infamous Rasputin, Rafael winds up meeting a vampire.
As Krummenacker’s engaging caper unfolds, readers are kept in a regular state of suspense. While it may initially seem as though Clara and Rafael will embark on a quirky investigation together, things take a turn when the Order of Repentance enters the picture. A tale supposedly about a missing Fabergé egg and some flustered shop owners eventually begins heading down an invitingly dark, supernatural avenue. Even a cool customer like Rafael couldn’t have planned for the hurdles he faces. But certain aspects of the story complicate matters without rewarding the audience. For instance, readers are assured that during World War II, Rafael repeatedly requested to be assigned to combat duty. The only reason he was forced to work in a military police capacity was due to his law enforcement background. This is not a particularly exciting or captivating part of his character when bigger problems are just emerging. In addition, the dialogue sometimes relies on such stock phrases as “Where are you going?” and “You’re amazing.” Nevertheless, the tale develops quickly, with the entire story coming in under 200 pages. Not much time is wasted once the main events get going and Rafael and Clara try to stop the bad guys. And even after the gripping novel has concluded, there proves to be plenty of intriguing material left for the sequel.
A tense, thrilling paranormal adventure with a striking cast.Pub Date: May 21, 2019
ISBN: 9781096235484
Page Count: 243
Publisher: Independently Published
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.
Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.
A week after the night she chases but fails to catch a mysterious trespasser outside her town house, some unknown party texts Tempe four images of a corpse that looks as if it’s been chewed by wild hogs, because it has been. Showboat Medical Examiner Margot Heavner makes it clear that, breaking with her department’s earlier practice (The Bone Collection, 2016, etc.), she has no intention of calling in Tempe as a consultant and promptly identifies the faceless body herself as that of a young Asian man. Nettled by several errors in Heavner’s analysis, and even more by her willingness to share the gory details at a press conference, Tempe launches her own investigation, which is not so much off the books as against the books. Heavner isn’t exactly mollified when Tempe, aided by retired police detective Skinny Slidell and a host of experts, puts a name to the dead man. But the hints of other crimes Tempe’s identification uncovers, particularly crimes against children, spur her on to redouble her efforts despite the new M.E.’s splenetic outbursts. Before he died, it seems, Felix Vodyanov was linked to a passenger ferry that sank in 1994, an even earlier U.S. government project to research biological agents that could control human behavior, the hinky spiritual retreat Sparkling Waters, the dark web site DeepUnder, and the disappearances of at least four schoolchildren, two of whom have also turned up dead. And why on earth was Vodyanov carrying Tempe’s own contact information? The mounting evidence of ever more and ever worse skulduggery will pull Tempe deeper and deeper down what even she sees as a rabbit hole before she confronts a ringleader implicated in “Drugs. Fraud. Breaking and entering. Arson. Kidnapping. How does attempted murder sound?”
Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9821-3888-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
Though it falters a bit under its own weight, this series still has plenty of fight left.
In this long-awaited fifth installment of Shannon’s Bone Season series, the threat to the clairvoyant community spreads like a plague across Europe.
After extending her fight against the Republic of Scion to Paris, Paige Mahoney, leader of London’s clairvoyant underworld and a spy for the resistance movement, finds herself further outside her comfort zone when she wakes up in a foreign place with no recollection of getting there. More disturbing than her last definitive memory, in which her ally-turned-lover Arcturus seems to betray her, is that her dreamscape—the very soul of her clairvoyance—has been altered, as if there’s a veil shrouding both her memories and abilities. Paige manages to escape and learns she’s been missing and presumed dead for six months. Even more shocking is that she’s somehow outside of Scion’s borders, in the free world where clairvoyants are accepted citizens. She gets in touch with other resistance fighters and journeys to Italy to reconnect with the Domino Programme intelligence network. In stark contrast to the potential of life in the free world is the reality that Scion continues to stretch its influence, with Norway recently falling and Italy a likely next target. Paige is enlisted to discover how Scion is bending free-world political leaders to its will, but before Paige can commit to her mission, she has her own mystery to solve: Where in the world is Arcturus? Paige’s loyalty to Arcturus is tested as she decides how much to trust in their connection and how much information to reveal to the Domino Programme about the Rephaite—the race of immortals from the Netherworld, Arcturus’ people—and their connection to the founding of Scion, as well as the presence of clairvoyant abilities on Earth. While the book is impressively multilayered, the matter-of-fact way in which details from the past are sprinkled throughout will have readers constantly flipping to the glossary. As the series’ scope and the implications of the war against Scion expand, Shannon’s narrative style reads more action-thriller than fantasy. Paige’s powers as a dreamwalker are rarely used here, but when clairvoyance is at play, the story shines.
Though it falters a bit under its own weight, this series still has plenty of fight left.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2025
ISBN: 9781639733965
Page Count: 576
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
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