More Books than Time

Book Reviews - Romance, Fantasy, Science Fiction - By an Adult for Adults

Smoke in Mirrors – Romantic Suspense by Jayne Krentz

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Jayne Krentz writes romantic suspense, sometimes with a paranormal twist and sometimes without. Smoke and Mirrors is a “without” story and it’s one of Krentz’s better novels with vivid characters and a twisting plot.

Leonora is packing up her dead half-sister Meredith’s apartment when Thomas Walker stalks in and accuses her of helping Meridith embezzle 1.5 million dollars from the college endowment his family funded. Despite this unpleasant beginning the two feel a solid connection, and when Leonora receives a posthumous email from Meredith telling her how to collect the money, she contacts Thomas.

Thomas’s brother, Deke, lost his wife, supposedly to suicide about a year earlier. Deke is convinced someone murdered his wife although there is no real evidence, and Thomas is helping Deke reluctantly. Once Leonora arrives that changes because Leonora provides a link between Meredith and Deke’s wife. The brothers team up with Leonora to discover the truth.

It looks like everything is wrapped up, we have the killer and his accomplices, but look! It’s only page 210 and we have another 53 pages to go. Right about now a minor character wafts through the room and all we suspense readers know what that means. Even with the huge tell from the page count we still have to read through to the end to learn how Krentz ties up all the loose strings.

The romance between Leonora and Thomas is intense and fast with plenty of sex scenes and a recurring bad double-entendre. None the less Krentz does her magic and we care about the characters. I found Deke and his love interest, Cassie, more interesting than Leonora, and Leonora’s ex fiance, the obnoxious English professor, was all too realistic.

Smoke in Mirrors is a very fast read, figure 3 hours or so, and it grabs you and takes you along for the ride. Aside from the sex scenes there is very little vulgarity and one blasphemy.

4 Stars or a bit less

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Copper Beach, Paranormal Romance by Jayne Krentz

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Jayne Krentz sets Copper Beach on one of the San Juan islands off the coast from Seattle, not on the alien planet Harmony; otherwise this novel follows the same path as her Harmony series written under the Jayne Castle name. Abby Radwell works as an online bookseller specializing in paranormal volumes. Per Abby this is a fairly decent size market with multiple dealers and buyers who range from evil nuts to nuts to paranoid to weird. Abby caters to the merely paranoid and weird.

Sam Coppersmith runs an R&D lab that works on crystals with paranormal properties. His dad, along with 2 partners, mined for minerals in Nevada and found some very unusual geodes with crystals full of psi energy. One of the partners kept a lab notebook which disappeared in an explosion 40 years ago but now is rumored to have surfaced. The lab notebook is psi coded, meaning only certain sensitives can read it. Abby is one of these sensitives.

The story proceeds with a few side twists that add energy and interest as Sam and Abby try to identify who is trying to blackmail her into finding the notebook and to secure the book in Coppersmith’s vault.

As with all Jayne Krentz books, the love story rides along with the action-filled plot, with several bedroom detours. Even though we know everything will end up just fine, the story moves and we go with it. The sex scenes are explicit but short. There is very little vulgarity or blasphemy.

Krentz’ biggest gift is her ability to create vivid characters and plots to match. The suspense and romance feel real and we urge the characters along as they fall in love, as they fight bad guys in parking garages, as they confront killers.

I enjoyed the story although the ending seems a bit too pat, too neatly wrapped up and tied with a bow. I’m not aware of a sequel although this set of characters seems natural for ongoing adventures.

4 Stars

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The Fold by Peter Clines – Science Fiction Done Right

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Peter Clines takes a fascinating idea – instantaneous travel – adds a background setting of creeping dread, likable  characters, good dialogue and writing to make a fun novel, The Fold.  Lead character Mike Erikson teaches high school English but he’s not your typical teacher.  He’s brilliant and remembers everything, everything he ever saw, read, heard, felt, thought.

Mike’s old friend in DARPA asks him to check out a group DARPA funds that seemingly has incredible success, yet is frustratingly unwilling to take more steps or widen their discovery.  This friend wants to use the technology, called the Fold, to revolutionize travel if it works, or to stop the research funding if it does not.  Everyone says the Fold works, that it is perfectly safe.  Yet everyone on the project is uneasy and one previous investigator came out of his trip somewhat changed.

Mike learns the Fold actually doesn’t move you from point A to point B, but exchanges you with someone else in a very close alternate reality.  Oops.  And sometimes, if there are more people around, the alternate reality is not close at all.  After one researcher comes through the Fold with radiation burns that are at least a year old, the science team comes clean about what they have and how they developed it.  It is true Mad Science, based on the metaphysical ramblings and equations of a Victorian fruitcake.

Now Mike has a problem, because the Fold isn’t shutting down.  And it isn’t connecting anywhere benign either.

The plot is excellent.  We learn more about the characters throughout the story and author Peter Clines does a very good job with creating characters that we can relate to.  The primary hero, Mike, is amazingly smart, in fact a little too brilliant to be completely believable.  He comes in from outside the project, armed with his eidetic memory  and pattern skills and quickly understands the project.  It takes him some time and some inexplicable happenings to see the most likely rationale, an alternate world.  Once he does it’s obvious to everyone that the Fold offers great promise and even greater threat.

I did have a little problem visualizing the setting.  The scientists built the fold in a concrete building with several rooms.  The action takes place in a few of those rooms and in a couple of the alternate worlds.  It was the building that I had a hard time visualizing, but that is minor quibble.  (How exciting is a concrete building?)

Overall The Fold is entertaining, an enjoyable fast read.

4 Stars

Impact by Douglas Preston – Suspense and International Intrigue in a Science Fiction Background

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Impact starts as suspense, a thriller with two strands.  Ex-CIA Wyman Ford travels to Cambodia to find the source of some new, beautiful and highly radioactive amber colored gem stones.  Resourceful Wyman manages to reach the mine site in the back hills of Cambodia, braving murderous ex-Pol Pot Brother #6, gem dealers, corrupt local officials.  He finds the mine is far too large for the CIA to have missed in aerial reconnaissance and it is run by sadists who force peasants to labor in the radioactive pit.

Wyman figures out the pit is actually the exit point from a meteor and decides to find where it entered.

Meanwhile Abbey Straw sees a meteorite strike in the islands off the coast of Maine.  She drags her best friend off to find the meteorite, fights off a would-be rapist, sinks her father’s lobster boat but finds only a smooth hole, no meteorite.  Wyman connects with Abbey and they start looking for the source of the meteor that stuck Maine, passed through the earth and exited in Cambodia.

The science fiction aspect adds drama and existential threat to the story.

Preston gives us interesting people that we come to care about.  Abby is young, impetuous, brave, foolish and very smart.  She loves her father although she has the usual push/pull to get away from home.  She loves her friend Jackie despite knowing Jackie is a bit dim and never going to make anything of herself.  Wyman Ford is complex, smart, brave, patriotic and not at all intimidated by power.

Overall Impact is good, with well-done people interacting within a complex plot.  True, some of the events resolve themselves a little too neatly, but that’s the nature of thrillers and space opera.

4 Stars

 

Tarnished City by Vic James, Sequel to The Gilded Cage – Dystopian Magic in England

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Vic James’ taunt fantasy thriller, The Gilded Cage, introduced us to a horrifying alternate England, one where magic-wielding Skilled Equals tyrannize everyone else, even requiring all commoners to serve 10 years of Slave Days.  The slavery conditions vary, from miserable to deadly, and Equals have little or no consequences for injuring their slaves.  Once a commoner serves their 10 years as a slave they are more-or-less free, with however, no political power.  (Gilded Cage review is here.)

Tarnished City picks up immediately after The Gilded Cage.  Luke is Condemned, in the hands of Crovan, a psychopath Equal, highly skilled at inflicting torture via the mind.  Luke’s sister Abigail has escaped from the car that is bringing her and her parents to the slave town, and now makes her way to an Equal family she believes can help her prove Luke’s innocence and set him free.

Neither sibling realizes exactly how naive they are.  Only a few Equals care about commoners or are willing to take action even knowing someone is innocent of a crime.  As power-hungry Whittam Jardine says, “Stupid girl.  Truth isn’t what happened, it’s what people will believe happened.”

Tarnished City‘s plot is escapes, followed by searches for family, followed by desperate quests for fairness and justice, with a good-size helping of violence.  The story combines Luke and Abigail coming of age, realizing exactly what their country is and what they can – and cannot – do to save it.  Their counterpoint is the Jardine sons.  One grows into betrayal, one into on-again/off-again decency, and one is a sociopath, caring almost nothing about anything beyond his Skill.  One family is Slave and the other Equal and they are bound together.

Characters have a range of emotions and motives although a few of them remain opaque.  The villains are notably sketchy (after all, what author wants to delve into the mind of a psychopath like Crovan?)  Even Abi and Luke feel more like people in a book rather than real people.  Despite the somewhat-limited character building we can empathize enough to realize the incredible danger and no-win situations for the individuals and the overall country.

Overall Tarnished City is well-done.  It is difficult to read in large doses given the truly terrible and horrifying events and situations that Vic James develops.  On the downside there are a lot of characters and some are in-and-out, no one you have to remember.  The author tries to help us keep the point of view narrator clear by noting the person in the chapter titles, but it is still a little hard to recall a minor character from the first novel.

I just received an advance copy of the final novel, Bright Ruin, and am curious how James will end this.  There is no happy ending that I can see.

Please note that this series is marked YA because the protagonists are older teens but I certainly would not recommend this to anyone very young.  The concepts are blatantly moralistic and political, and while we hear the villains tell us why they think they are right, they don’t make a lot of sense.  Don’t give this to a young person who can’t distinguish motive from means from ends.

4 Stars

Bangkok Warlock: A Mark Vedis Supernatural Thriller Book 1 (Southeast Asia Paranormal Police Department)

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Bangkok Warlock by John P. Logsdon is book 1 in the Mark Vedis Supernatural Thriller series, also called Southeast Asia Paranormal Police Department.  Bangkok Warrior uses the theme of a supernatural police force protecting us humans and borrows the Paranormal Police Department Logsdon uses in other novels.

This is an OK novel, not bad and not great, a decent read while I was camping.  The main character, Mark Vedis, is an unassuming low-level mage in the Paranormal Police Department until he inadvertently bonds with a demon.  Not to worry, the demons in this series aren’t devils, more like powerful, obnoxious paranormal creatures it’s best to avoid.

Mark then must take on more challenging responsibilities and lead a new team in Bangkok.

The author gives us almost nothing about Bangkok as the focus is on the paranormal side, not the earth side.  The characters are OK, again not bad, reasonably interesting and somewhat fleshed out, but not compelling.

Overall Bangkok Warrior is a decent read for a lazy afternoon, best if you have a Kindle Unlimited account.

3 Stars

 

Homecoming: A Montague & Strong Detective Novel by Orlando Sanchez

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I liked Homecoming, just as I’ve liked almost all the Montague and Strong series, but it wasn’t quite up to the standards author Orlando Sanchez set with his first four novels in the series.

On the plus side we have the usual badness from Monty and Simon, we have Uncle Dex, we have Peaches, we have a super villain Oliver who wants to take over the mages first, then the world, we have Professor Ziller, he whom everyone refers to when they discuss the most  esoteric (and scary) magic and we have non-stop action.

So what’s wrong?  First, people just die for what seems like little reason, sacrificing themselves for little gain.  The bodies pile up, which is not uncommon in a M&S book, but usually it’s clear why they are dying.  In Homecoming why do the villainous side-kicks throw their lives away?  Their goal is for Oliver to rule; it is hard to see how that motivates minions and henchmen to throw themselves on Monty’s magic swords.  (I’m having a hard time imagining Oliver’s motivation speech.)

Second, I cannot abide new characters LD and TK Tush.  Who wants people who care only about how scary and how much magical power they have?

Third, the byplay between Simon and Monty is the centerpiece of the M&S novels, it is the reason the stories work.  Homecoming has the interaction but it doesn’t feel as immediate as other novels.  Simon seems to play catch up much of the novel.

Author Sanchez says he is letting us further into the M&S world with each novel, letting us peek behind the scenes and learn more about each character.  He gave us quite a bit on Monty in Homecoming and its predecessor Silver Clouds, Dirty Sky.  I enjoy getting to know the characters and the feeling we truly are getting acquainted.

I couldn’t put Homecoming down, just as with the prior novels in the series.  The super-fast pace has a downside, though, in that a couple of months after reading it I didn’t recall the events very well.  I had to go back and check a couple things when the sequel, Dragons and Demigods, came out (which of course I immediately purchased and read.)  Much as I enjoy speed-of-light plots, it might be wise to linger a bit over some of the Simon/Monty or Peaches scenes and let us readers savor the pleasure.

4 Stars

The Candidate – Far Fetched Fiction, We Hope

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Liz Wiehl’s new novel The Candidate featuring star news reporter Erica Sparks uses America’s presidential election as the backdrop for nefarious and increasingly unbelievable events.  Erica interviews presidential candidate Mike Ortiz and his glam wife Celeste for her show and leaves both impressed and vaguely troubled.  Something seems off about Ortiz and the couple’s relationship; in fact, Mike seems to look to Celeste for answers, not a good sign for a president.

Erica is standing right in front of the next two horrifying scenes, first when Ortiz’ leading opponent for the nomination is assassinated and then in the courtroom when the assassin is himself murdered.  Both trouble her because neither culprit has any background to indicate a problem and both have months-long gaps in their history which they cannot account for.

The novel is all plot and it’s increasingly ridiculous.  How many times can Erica be the target for something?  And how will she fight back when no one else was able?  How would she hire a personal assistant/nanny without seriously investigating her?

Wiehl tries to build in a romance/family conflict as Erica worries about and wants to spend time with her daughter Jenny but continues to answer ambition’s call to be that top-rated news show host instead.  She hires an intern to be her assistant and to take care of Jenny, not realizing that the assistant is loony.  These interpersonal conflicts seem pasted on in order to make Erica likable and to give an opening for the personal assistant’s betrayal.

Overall The Candidate could be fun if you can suspend all belief and look at Erica as a cross between Wonder Woman and Brenda Starr.  I didn’t care for it once the basic plot was uncovered.

I received this from NetGalley in exchange for a review.
2 Stars

Fantasy, Horror and Suspense All In One: The Reckoning by Carsten Stroud

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The Reckoning is that rarest of books, a trilogy finale that stands on its own merits.  It is Book 3 in The Niceville Trilogy yet I found it easy to follow, enjoyable and readable.  I have not read either of the first two books in the series.

The Reckoning combines mystery with horror and a strong dash of supernatural fantasy.  People in Niceville are dying in horrific, gruesome ways, whole families are murdered, their killer dies cut in half by a shifting stalactite.  Thankfully author Carsten Stroud spares us details – no gory scenes or dripping blood – leaving the horror part secondary to the mystery.

Stroud has a gift for bringing disparate elements together and making the whole into a readable novel. Setting and characters are interesting and realistic.

The setting is Niceville, well described and the book includes a map, a ranch several miles out and a Florida beach house.  Stroud describes the settings well enough that you understand and follow the actions as characters travel around town and between the town and ranch, and town and beach house.

The main character is Nick Kavanaugh who is responsible to investigate a horrible murder of a Niceville family, and who with his wife Kate is fostering a 14-year old boy, Rainey Teague, brutally kidnapped in a prior book.  Rainey acts like a normal 14-year old but Nick can’t quite shake the idea that Rainey is far more than he appears.

One of the most interesting characters is Coker, an ex-cop wanted for murder and robbery.  He and his girlfriend are enjoying their beach house under an assumed name when they hear screams on top of an already-raucous party.  Reluctantly they call the police who find the usual, drugs, booze and underage girls.  The young men decide to revenge themselves and attack Coker.  Bad move as he disables and nearly cripples two of them.  This spirals into a game of cat and mouse with the mob, the FBI, a smart widow and assorted stupid side kicks.

Characters reference past events from the first two novels but Stroud provides enough back story that we can fill in the blanks without reading the earlier books.  He does an excellent job, the “bring them up to speed” parts are transparent, let out as part of the story, not patched in with some obvious add on.

Stroud’s writing style is good, with good pacing, reasonable dialogue, interesting characters.  I didn’t care for the events on the ranch or former asylum – nor did they seem particularly germane to this novel.  I think Stroud may have included them to tie up loose ends from the first two books.

Overall I recommend this if you enjoy suspense novels or supernatural suspense.  The fantasy elements are there to serve the plot and let the supernatural suspense lead the show.

4+ Stars

Foxglove Summer – City Boy Goes to Country – Rivers of London – Ben Aaronovitch

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Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London series gets better and better.  We last left Peter Grant devastated by a massive betrayal in Broken Homes.  Weeks later in Foxglove Summer he’s off to Herefordshire to check a former Folly member, now retired, as a possible suspect in a case of two missing 11 year old girls.  Peter quickly rules the former wizard from suspicion and offers his help to the local police who are overwhelmed.

Peter is pretty sure this will be a straight forward police case and is looking forward to something simple – no wizardry, no Faceless Man, no Tasers, no Mother Thames or her brood.  His happy certainty lasts right until he checks out the girls’ cell phones, found abandoned and non functional.  Peter recognizes the tell-tale pitting of electronics exposed to magic.

This is our first time seeing Peter operate alone and he does a grand job.  He searches all the past witness statements for “oddities” and sure enough, finds that one of the girls had an invisible friend. Sleuthing the modern way, with cheapo cell phones set up to register magic, plus plenty of gumshoe work and listening to what’s not said yields success.

Peter’s developed his magic skills immensely, witness the fact he could blow out fence gates on the run, something Nightingale said only about half the older generation could do.  He gets tantalizing clues about Nightingale and the debacle at Ettersberg and further insight into magic’s place in the world beyond London.

New Characters

Peter’s been entranced by Beverly Brook, sort-of 20-something daughter of Mama Thames and this time she shows up to help him out.  He helps her too, in several interesting ways.  Beverly is more human when she’s with Peter but she still has her river goddess innate presence.

We meet several new characters:  DCI Windrow and Inspector Edmondson, the leads on the kidnapping case, Dominic Croft, whom Windrow assigns to work with Peter, normally shrewd journalist Sharon Pike who bizarrely accuses the cops of covering up the real culprit, offering as evidence a piece of the plastic backing from a candy bar, the parents, Hugh Oswald the former wizard now bee keeper and Mellissa his granddaughter who may be part bee herself.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see Dominic or Sharon knock on the Folly door sometime to learn magic.

Aaronovitch makes these people real to us.  We don’t get a full character dissection on any of them but he shows us enough that we recognize them.  They are types yes, but with enough added humanity that they are people, not cardboard cutouts.

Setting

Peter’s way out of his element in the wilds of  Herefordshire but in true Peter Grant spirit quickly learns his way around and gets familiar enough with the local background to spot anomalies in the reforestation efforts.  He’s a amazing person whom I’d like to meet sometime.

The only map is on the front cover and I’m not familiar with Herefordshire – good thing we have Google maps and Google Earth! – but you don’t need to know the real countryside to follow the idea of wooded hills, pastures, fields, small towns, ridges and creeks.  Aaronovitch gives enough detail to make it interesting without trying to make it too realistic.

Plot

The plot was great.  As with all the Rivers of London novels we have lots of unanswered questions.  Who is the fairy queen and why did she want the girls?  Why did she want Peter and what did she plan to use him for?  Why did the unicorns chase the escaping girls right into the arms of Peter, Beverly and Dominic?  How did the fairy queen make a second, identical girl?

And last, how on earth would Peter et al explain the second daughter? And that they were giving the spare girl, who happened to be the biological human daughter, to Fleet to raise?

Summary

I have loved all the Rivers of London novels, but if I had to pick a favorite it would be a tie among Midnight Riot, Broken Homes and this one, Foxglove Summer.  It’s fun seeing Peter grow personally and as a wizard, London commentaries are hilarious, tension ever increasing, and minor characters are fun and well developed with just a few sentences.

5 Stars