Monthly Archives: June 2017

A Plunder of Souls (Thieftaker Chronicles #3) by D.B. Jackson

When the graves in some of Boston’s cemeteries are found disturbed, at first the church believes it to be grave robbers of some sort. However when it is learned that each body has been desecrated in the same manner and each bears a strange symbol carved in to their chest, they realize that something much stranger is going on.

Enter Ethan Kaille, a thieftaker and conjurer who has used his abilities in the past to catch various thieves and villains. His initial investigation turns little up, yet the more he digs the more he comes to understand that what he is dealing with is incredibly powerful. Add to this the fact that Ethan’s abilities to conjure are beginning to wane and each spell becomes more and more difficult to cast. Soon he realizes even if he were to combine his abilities with the few other conjurers in the city they might not be enough to defeat the one behind the grave robbing and the disturbed souls could possibly be lost forever.

D.B. Jackson has a PhD in American History and once again has put it to good use in A Plunder of Souls. He takes us back to Boston in 1769, where a smallpox outbreak has the city on edge. Growing dissent against the British crown only adds fuel to a fire that will eventually erupt.

Jackson does an admirable job of bringing 18th century Boston to life on the page even if the overall story has become a bit formulaic. This being the third book in the series, readers will recognize common plot threads and might even be able to predict character movements as the story progresses. I am not saying this is a bad thing; there are those who enjoy reading a book where they know what is going to happen next. Not all readers enjoy this kind of thing and those who don’t might take issue.

More squeamish readers also might have problems as some scenes are a bit more gruesome. Nature isn’t terribly kind when it comes to decay.

I enjoyed reading A Plunder of Souls even with the few flaws it has. While not the strongest book out of the series, it is a good addition.

Sleeping Giants (Themis Files #1) – by Sylvain Neuvel

A young girl named Rose falls down a hidden shaft while riding her bike near her home in South Dakota. When she wakes, she finds herself surrounded by walls covered in strange glowing symbols; yet her rescuers see something even stranger, a little girl seated in the palm of a giant metal hand.

Seventeen years have passed and the mystery of the metal hand continues. The little girl, Rose, is now the adult Dr. Rose Franklin. As a highly trained physicist she now leads a top secret group of military and science personnel with the goal of deciphering the metal hand’s mysteries. What do the strange symbols that lined the shaft surrounding the hand mean? And is the hand part of a larger construct?

As the pieces come together, both literally and figuratively, Dr. Franklin and her colleagues find the result could either be an instrument of peace or a weapon of lasting destruction.

Told through a variety of interviews and personal journal entries, Sleeping Giants is part mystery and part sci-fi thriller. It begs the question of what would happen if an alien construct was discovered. How would the world react if it were learned that we are not alone?

In Sleeping Giants the world does not react – at least not at first – because the world initially doesn’t know. An unnamed individual is pulling strings and making deals to make sure that doesn’t happen, and when it inevitably does, to make sure the “right” people are in control. But who are the “right” people? And this unnamed person, who are they and who are they really working for? One is left to ponder these things especially as more of what they have done comes to life over the course of the story.

Personally, I found Sleeping Giants to be an intriguing read.  The idea of aliens leaving artifacts to be found is not a new one yet here it is handled in a new way. Government conspiracies abound as strange unnamed persons pull at invisible strings to make sure events go as they want them.

Sci-fi fans as well as conspiracy theorist fans will greatly enjoy this book. Personally, I am looking forward to reading the second book to see just how far down the rabbit hole goes.

 

The Mall (Downside #1) by S.L. Grey

Dan is your typical angsty emo kid working in a bookstore inside a dull shopping mall.

Rhoda is your typical junkie, always looking for her next score; her next hit.

When the kid Rhoda is supposed to be looking after runs off while she’s scoring some cocaine, she bullies the hapless Dan in to helping her look for the child. Dan is less than eager to help but as they search more of the closed mall, they both begin receiving strange text messages that draw them in to the lower levels of the building. Where old mannequins are stored in grave like piles and raw sewage drips from the ceiling…and where the only way out is down.

Taking the only elevator, they enter a gruesome underworld where their worst fears are brought to life. Making it to the other side, the two find themselves back in the mall but things are not quite right. And soon they both realize their nightmare has only just begun.

The Mall is very much your typical survival horror type of story; and yet it isn’t. Readers familiar with the Silent Hill video games – specifically the third one – will recognize the descent of the characters from a normal looking mall to a darker, flip-side type of mall. They will recognize the puzzles the characters must solve in order to move on as well as the horrifying obstacles they must face.

Certainly not a book for the squeamish, I found The Mall to be a quick and entertaining read. It’s obvious this is the first of a series as it leaves a good deal of questions unanswered. Horror fans should definitely give this one a read and I’ll be looking for the next book in the series.

Hello new followers

Greetings to all my followers, both old and new.

Today, I received a message that I’ve hit a milestone – I now have 50 followers!

Thank you so much for following my little book blog – you have no idea how much I appreciate it. Thank you to those who have followed me from the start and to those who have joined me along the way. Reading and writing for this blog has certainly been a learning experience and one I hope to continue for a long time.

 

The Countess by Rebecca Johns

In 1611, Countess Erzsébet Báthory, stands helpless as masons walled her inside her castle tower. She is to spend her final years in solitary confinement for her crime – the gruesome murders of dozens of female servants. She claims she was only disciplining them but her opponents paint her as a bloodthirsty witch.

Her only recourse is to tell her story in her own words; a feat she does by writing to her young son. She recounts her childhood and her love for her parents, her arranged marriage and a husband she would eventually come to care deeply for. She describes how she embraces her new role of wife and mother and how she does all she can to secure a future for her precious children.

Yet as she strives for these things, a darker side of the Countess surfaces. The Countess is a strict mistress; demanding respect, virtue, and above all, obedience. It is when she does not receive what she feels is her due that events take a more sinister turn.

Erzsébet Báthory is one of those individuals where the truth is just as disturbing as the fiction. Described as a bloodthirsty sadist, it was believed she killed countless young women and bathed in their blood. The truth, while no less disturbing, is only slightly less gruesome. And it is a truth that Johns expounds on in The Countess.

The Countess is the fictionalized biography of the very real Countess Erzsébet Báthory. Her story is told through her own hand as she writes to her son from her prison cell. She tells him of her life before his birth and after, all the while in the hope that he understands that she did only what she believed was right. For her and for her children.

The Countess is a heavy read at times. Women, even noble born, were treated as little more than commodities. Marriages were made to strengthen political ties; to join families and fortunes. In this day and age of feminism, it can be difficult to read about a time when this wasn’t true.

Jones does an admirable job of bringing the world of 16th century Hungary to life. It is a cruel world and Jones doesn’t pretty things up at all. She gives us a glimpse in to the life of one of the most infamous women to date and gives us a bit of insight in to her character. Bathory isn’t painted as a sympathetic character but as a women doing what she believed to be correct in a time where there were few choices.

A heavy read and a bit gruesome at times, overall I enjoyed The Countess. I recommend this one to my readers.