Spell Blind-David B. Coe

Spell Blind

David B. Coe

Baen, Jan 6 2015, $25.00

ISBN 9781476780245

Weremyste, Justis Fearsson struggles with aptly named lunacy just before, during and after a full moon arises.  The Phoenix Police Department fired him after six plus years on the force mostly as a Homicide Detective due to his full moon 72 hours or so of temporary insanity.  To make a living, Justis became a private investigator.

Affluent North Scottsdale residents Michael and Sissy Tyler hire Justis to find their runaway teenage daughter Jessie, who two weeks ago emptied her checking account of several thousand dollars.  Justis learns from Sissy’s friends and sister that she behaved oddly self-destructive prior to her vanishing and along with other evidence, the sleuth believes she hooked up with a myste.  He rescues Sissy and other children from a drug-dealing myste, but the unscrupulous culprit escapes by using the kids as deadly targets.  Not long after this, Justis becomes involved in the Blind Angel serial killer case; an unfinished failure that still disturbs him from his cop days.  With help from his former PPD partner Kona, reporter Billie Castle and a ghost, Justis diligently follows clues to end this psychopath’s reign of terror.

Mindful of Jim Butcher’s early Dresden like Full Moon starting with if you look in the Phoenix phone book under private investigators, you'll find an ad with a picture of Justis, Spell Bind is a terrific opening act due to an intriguing lead.  The storyline starts leisurely-paced even with the hero saving the children as the audience learns the rules of David B. Coe’s Arizona.  Once we understand the rudiments of Coe world, this private investigator urban fantasy accelerates into a magical cat and mouse war between a 24/7 lunatic and a full moon lunatic.

Harriet Klausner

The Sirena Quest-Michael A. Kahn

The Sirena Quest

Michael A. Kahn

Poisoned Pen, Jan 6 2015, $24.95

ISBN 9781464203527

In 1994 Silicon Valley billionaire and Barrett College class of ‘59 graduate Robert Godwin notices the alignment of three seemingly unrelated events except for the day June 17 and the school.  The oldest occurrence is the college’s sesquicentennial anniversary; the middle happening is the 1959 theft of the still missing Greco-Roman sculpture Sirena from it place at the prestigious Massachusetts school; finally the youngest gala is the class of ’74 celebrating its twentieth reunion.  Godwin offers a $23 million endowment to his alma mater if Sirena is back in its college locale on June 17, 1994; and $2 million to those who accomplish the feat.

Class of ’74 Ray Gorman contacts his James Gang college roommates Lou Solomon, Gordie Cohen and “Bronco” Billy McCormack to discuss finding fame, fortune and the missing statue.  Ray begins the quest by meeting with Lou in the latter’s hometown St. Louis to start the quest by visiting the late “Mr. Barrett College” Ray Washburn’s sister.  While rivals including unscrupulous dangerous competitors hunt for Sirena, the middle age fearsome foursome also follow clues that send them hopping all over the country.

As St. Louis attorney Rachel Gold (see Face Value and Trophy Widow) takes somewhat of a respite (she makes a cameo appearance in this tale), Michael A. Kahn provides an exciting treasure hunt thriller enhanced by deep metaphysical middle age identity crises.  The entertaining storyline grips the audience once Ray and Lou meet in St. Louis and never slows down as the protagonists and their challengers break the law and take several major missteps.  Fans will root for the James Gang as they face several perilous scenarios while realizing finding who they are supersedes finding Sirena.

Harriet Klausner

The Stargods Trilogy-Irene Radford

The Stargods Trilogy

Irene Radford

Daw, Jan 6 2015, $18.00

ISBN: 9780756410421

“The Hidden Dragon.”  The O'Hara clan resists the Galactic Terran Empire takeover.  The governor declares them outlaws; taking their business, their home and their citizenship; while their sister Katie vanishes.  Kim, Konner and Loki become smugglers, but are forced to make a jump into unknown space.  They land their damaged ship on a planet inhabited by colonists who over the centuries turned into a Bronze Age hunting and gathering society. The brothers build a nation in which the inhabitants regard them as the Stargods due to their advanced off-world technology.

“The Dragon Circle.”  They remain stranded due to a damaged crystal power source.  While on board growing new crystals, Konnor notices a beacon that will lead the imperial military police to this world.  He believes his ex-wife Melinda is behind this because she wants to prevent him from gaining custody of their son Martin.

“The Dragon’s Revenge.”  Kim and Konner marry local women but the IMPs including Katie invade their new home.  The brothers disable their enemy's ship, forcing them to work alongside the natives if they want to survive.  Like her siblings, Katie adapts to this strange world.  Meanwhile Martin flees from his amoral mother seeking his father.  Threatening the planet, Hanassa the dragon takes control of the body and mind of the IMP leader.

This omnibus reprint of the decade plus old thrilling Stargod trilogy affirms that Irene Radford’s wonderful science fiction-fantasy amalgam remains fresh.  The key premise is the Bronze Age natives’ reactions to the technology of space traveling people; the O’Hara siblings become elevated to Stargod status, while the IMP is considered Star-demons; and everyone on both sides of the dispute accepts dragons are deadly adversaries to all humans. 

Harriet Klausner

Bayou Hero-Marilyn Pappano

Bayou Hero

Marilyn Pappano

Harlequin Romantic Suspense, Jan 1 2015, $5.50

ISBN: 9780373279029

In his New Orleans mansion, someone violently stabs U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Jeremiah Jackson, Junior twenty-seven times and counting in his bed; also murdered by one stab wound to their chests are his live-in housekeeper, her daughter and the gardener.  NCIS Agent Alia Kingsley and her former husband NOPD Detective Jimmy DiBiase lead the investigation into the mass murders.  Both agree the intended target was the naval official in a crime of out of control rage; while the three other victims were collateral damage caused by them being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Jimmy makes it clear to his ex-wife, he wants a second chance, but Alia distrusts him to remain steadfast faithful; as he mass cheated on her when they were married.  Meanwhile Alia and a person of interest, the prime victim’s estrange son bartender Landry Jackson, are attracted to each other.  As three more killings occur, most law enforcement working the case believes Landry killed his father in a crime of passion and the others in a crime of cold-blooded cover-up.  The lone holdout Alia believes otherwise, but also fears her falling in love may have rose colored her instincts.

Allowing the citizens of Copper Lake, Georgia a respite, Marilyn Pappano takes her readers to the Big Easy in a terse romantic police procedural.  Filled with twists, red herrings and a wonderful but expected romantic triangle, the fast-paced storyline hooks the audience from the moment the divorcees meet at the death house and never slows down until the climatic confrontation with an angry predator. 

Harriet Klausner

The New Cowboy-Rebecca Winters

The New Cowboy

Rebecca Winters

Harlequin American Romance, Jan 1 2014, $5.50

ISBN: 9780373755516

A year ago in Montana, anthropologist Avery Bannock and former SEAL turned Bureau of Land Management Law Enforcement and Security undercover agent Zane Lawson met at a family gathering.  They rarely see each other except on Skype when he chats with his sister Sadie (see In A Cowboy’s Arms) as he works in another part of the state, but remain attracted to one another.

After successfully working a drug bust near Glasgow, Zane is reassigned to work in the Pryor Mountain region from out of his ranch, which is next to her grandfather’s spread where his beloved lives.  Suffering from a relatively mild form of PTSD, Zane recognizes that Avery faces similar mental traumas, which prevent her from forging a relationship with him.  Being patient with her, Zane learns whatever impacted Avery occurred when she attended Montana State eight years ago.  He persuades her to help him on an investigation into who stole Crow artifacts while also damaging the site of an excavation near Absarokee that Avery works. 

The third Hitting Rocks Cowboy family affair (see A Cowboy’s Heart) is an absorbing police procedural romance.  The protagonists are a captivating couple as each suffers from PTSD but extremely differing degrees and coping measures as she is much more crippled than he is.  Although the lead felon is obvious early on and the leads’ respective families are too upbeat, readers (and the Bannock and Lawson kin) will welcome The New Cowboy and his beloved anthologist to Hitting Rocks.

Harriet Klausner 

Undercover Hunter-Rachel Lee

Undercover Hunter

Rachel Lee

Harlequin Romantic Suspense, Jan 1 2014, $5.50

ISBN: 9780373279012

After five years away wandering big cities to stay ahead of law enforcement and rejoice in his collection, Calvin Sweet comes back to his hometown of Conard City, Wyoming.  Filled with rage for the cops taking away his triumphs, his boys, his corpses that he left there; Calvin plans to start over but change the locale of his spiderweb from the woods to somewhere else.  Still he feels good that his job at the crisis hotline should enable him to find troubled boys.

Not long after Calvin’s triumphant return, several boys go missing.  Wyoming Special Agents Cade Bankston and DeeJay Dawkins arrive in Conard City to assist the locals in catching the kidnaper who they assume is most likely a serial killer.  Their attitudes re the opposite sex leads each to detest their partnering; as Cade thinks a woman cannot have his back and DeeJay loathes men as Neanderthals only good for an occasional fling.  They seem to agree on nothing except to disagree on everything starting with the car radio.  Still making matters even more strained between them is their attraction to each other while understanding stopping a psychopath remains the top tasks.

The twelfth Conard County: The Next Generation romantic suspense (see Snowstorm Confessions, Defending the Eyewitness and Deadly Hunter) is an exciting serial killer novel.  Although the taut storyline goes as expected except for the deranged murderer going out of character by targeting one of the leads, the two state cops and the lunatic make for an absorbing cat and mouse tale as each brings diverse baggage to the plot.

Harriet Klausner

Taming the French Tycoon-Rebecca Winters

Taming the French Tycoon

Rebecca Winters

Harlequin Romance, Jan 1 2014, $5.99

ISBN: 9780373743209

Two months ago after finishing his banking business in Cypress, Lucien Charriere visited the ancient ruins on the nearby island Yeronisos.  The serenity was ruined when rowdy teens arrived to jump off the cliffs into the Mediterranean.  He tried to persuade the last female not to jump as she reminded him of his beloved Sabine; who died in a plane crash twenty years ago that turned Luc into a non-risk taking person.  She blows him away, but unbeknownst to him instead of diving Jasmine Martin visits antiquity.

In Grasse, France the iconic House of Ferrier perfume company announces twenty-six years old unknown Jasmine Martin is their new CEO.  Her late papa Maxim Ferrier selected her to replace him because of all his children and twenty-one grandchildren; she was the only one with the nose.  Only two years ago Ferrer was a great client of Luc’s bank.  Since the death of the perfume sorcerer Maxim, revenue has dropped considerably and if the spiral continues will bankrupt the firm and harm Luc’s bank.  Thus he fears the worst believing a tyro as its leader is a loser, especially when he recognizes the charming daredevil on the news.  However Jasmine clandestinely created a new perfume to save the family company, but needs Luc’s financial support.  Their attraction remains strong, but both believe personal distance is critical for the business deal to flourish.

This is a charmer contemporary starring two fascinating eccentrics.  Her nose agrees with her heart that Luc is the scent of her man; while he struggles with ignoring that Jasmine has become his only flower.  Although the ending is over the top of Mont Blanc, Taming the French Tycoon is magnifique.

Harriet Klausner