A paranormal crime novel that doesn’t rise to the level of its ambitions.
A cop and a psychic try to stop a rogue Russian agent in Kohno’s first paranormal thriller in a series.
There’s a psychic terrorist on the loose in the environs of Franklin, Oregon. At least, that’s what psychic consultant Gilda Dobrowski tells police detective Jim Sato. Jim and Gilda worked together on a case a few years back, and he admires her abilities, but he doesn’t know what to make of a warning that Gilda has supposedly received from the terror suspect: “Beware the Final Solution.” With Jim’s permission, Gilda uses his body to channel the terrorist, a former KGB agent who identifies himself as Sergei Verenich. He states that he wants to take revenge on the United States for the CIA’s actions during the Cold War. But if the pair can follow his clues and find him before his plan goes into action, they can save millions of lives. Jim and Gilda are sent on a wild chase after the psychic villain, who manages to pull off deadly bombings and other attacks in Oregon and elsewhere. As the pair race to stop him, they can’t help but wonder why Sergei chose them for this mission. Kohno’s blend of the classic crime-caper format with telepathic characters makes for an intriguing fictional world. However, for a novel that’s so interested in psychological profiles, the characters are disappointingly underdeveloped. There are some good lines, as when Jim rejects one of Sergei’s possible motivations: “Old Oedipus is dead and gone and Freud along with him. We’re talking about power and authority, not sex churning away in the subconscious.” More often, though, characters speak like they’re in a bad action movie, right down to a stereotypical rendering of police officers’ accents in the city of New Orleans, which Jim and Gilda visit later in the story. The writing’s inconsistent quality sometimes lessens the impact of more subtle threads, such as how Jim, who’s Japanese American, faces difficulties doing his job because of others’ bigotry. A lot happens in terms of plot, but rarely does any of it feel substantial, which prevents this offbeat genre mashup from fully coming to life.
A paranormal crime novel that doesn’t rise to the level of its ambitions.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73527-102-6
Page Count: 232
Publisher: Mindstir Media
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
As the prosecutor sadly observes: “All this because of a dead buffalo.”
Idyllic Catalina Island turns out to be just as crime infested as the rest of Los Angeles County in the latest series launch by the creator of Harry Bosch, Renée Ballard, and the Lincoln Lawyer.
Det. Sgt. Stilwell has been bounced off the county homicide squad and rusticized to Catalina, where the exclusive Black Marlin Club won’t admit even four-term Avalon Mayor Doug Allen to full membership and the most serious infraction seems to be the killing and cutting up of a buffalo, presumably by Henry Gaston, who operates Island Mystery Tours when he’s not threatening endangered species. All that changes with the discovery of a body sunk in the surrounding waters. The corpse, most recognizable by its streak of purple hair, is that of Leigh-Anne Moss, a Black Marlin server recently fired for fraternizing with members and guests she sees as potential sugar daddies. Stilwell is sufficiently invested in her murder to compete vigorously over jurisdiction with Rex Ahearn, the LA County homicide detective who kept his job when Stilwell lost his. Their rivalry, fueled by mutual contempt, is only the first hint that Stilwell will end up fighting his counterparts in law enforcement and local government at least as hard as he fights crooks like hit man Merris Spivak and Oscar “Baby Head” Terranova, Henry’s boss, who comes under sharper scrutiny when Henry disappears and ends up dead himself. Connelly handles his hero’s obligatory romance with assistant harbormaster Tash Dano and his increasingly wary alliance with assistant D.A. Monika Juarez with equal professionalism, and if the wrap-up leaves some loose ends dangling, well, that’s what franchises are for.
As the prosecutor sadly observes: “All this because of a dead buffalo.”Pub Date: May 20, 2025
ISBN: 9780316588485
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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