Death Most Definite
Trent Jamieson
Orbit, Jul 27 2010, $7.99
ISBN 9780316078009

Following his divorce, Steven de Selby becomes a Psychopomp at his family firm Mortmax Industries. His job as a Pomp requires him to send the souls of the dead to their final resting place.

At the mall for lunch, a female ghost who should not be there warns Steven to run, saving his life, but before he can pomp her she is gone. An unknown entity attacks the employees at the company’s offices in Sydney and Melbourne; everyone is killed. The ghost of a former peer warns Steven that he and the other Pomps at the Brisbane office are targeted next. Just an average guy, Steven dodges an apparent supernatural killing machine giving him no time to mourn for the loss of his family as he is a target. He also struggles with an impossible backlog of souls since the organization was downsized by the enemy. Then there are the Stirrers wearing the bodies of his loved ones: Steven knows being a Pomp is an unsafe occupation at the moment.

This is a fun tongue in cheek Australian urban fantasy whose underlying premise is soul departing has been privatized by “Mr. D”. The story line is fast-paced and filled with straightforward action as the reader will not be surprised by events, but will enjoy each soul raising escapade that Steven seems to get caught up in. Fans will appreciate his adventures to avoid pomping himself with few others around to do so as death becomes him.

Harriet Klausner

Wormfood
Jeff Jacobson
Medallion, Jul 2010, $15.95
ISBN 9781605421018

In Whitewood, California, Fat Ernst hires the lads to do a job for him involving the funeral of affluent rancher Earl Johnson; grieved by no one as all people loathed him. Skinny Arch Stanton is the designated driver as he and his friends plan to moon the corpse. However Arch slips and knocks the coffin into an irrigation ditch with the top falling off the casket.

From within the coffin come worms a foot long who occupy the insides of living species while eating their way out of their mortal dining facility. All hell breaks loose as the worms show up in cheeseburgers as one of their prime hosts is cows. Fat Ernst is upset because the worms are costing him customers.

This feels like a 1950s movie enhanced or detracted depending on your perspective by a string of profanity. The plot of the attack of the killer parasitic worms is light fun and thinner than Arch’s butt as stereotypes are the norm; even the worms come across as a horror film standard casting.

Harriet Klausner

Dragon Soul
Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett
Spectra (Bantam), Jun 8 2010, $26.00
ISBN: 9780553807691

The war (see Havemercy) is at least for now over as the two sides agree to a truce. However, neither the Volstov nor the Ke-Han trust one another. Both know it would not take much for hostilities to reignite as the magic weaving Volstov and the dark sorcery of Ke-Han remain diligently wary and weary.

Thom believes the tentative peace is a good time to bond with his despondent brother Rook. However, the grieving Rook, the most volatile yet successful warrior in the recent combat, has no interest in this or anything else. He still struggles with his Havemercy and the other great dragons dead; their bodies spread in small pieces across Ke-Han. Still he agrees to travel with Thom but the siblings are stunned to learn someone is paying good money to buy the remains of the fallen dragons. They soon realize that the beasts may be dead, but their magic lingers; in the wrong hands a new war could explode and there are several operatives seeking the means scattered all over Ke-Han.

Although somewhat different in tone than the great military fantasy Havemercy as that tale told the cost of a war on anyone within the sphere; this time the quest is less militarily epic for the most part but could turn rather quickly. The siblings are a terrific lead as Rook is a fierce warrior in aguish over the death of his equally feral dragon while Thom is a scholar who prefers to ride a book rather than a beast. Together, these opposites make for a strong saga as they follow the Marines’ credo of no one left behind in their search for the soul of Havemercy before enemies or allies possess the heart of the brave dragoness warrior.

Harriet Klausner

Blood Born
Linda Howard and Linda Jones
Ballantine, Apr 27 2010, $7.99
ISBN: 9780345520760

In Los Angeles Chloe Fallon keeps having an odd dream in which a warrior from somewhere not of this earth apparently seeks her out. What she is unaware of is her recurring dream is a real contact from another dimension as she is a conduit channel able to bring the warrior of her blood to Earth.

Vampire Council warrior Luca Ambrus is the rarest of his species being the offspring of two vampires, which gives him the unique skill that no human and few vampires remember him. His friend Hector warns him that a rogue vampire is killing conduits and a council member is assassinated; so he has been transmitting to Chloe in her dreams. When he saves her life, he is stunned because she not just remembers him she knows he is the star of her dreams. As he keeps her safe and they fall in love, Luca discovers an insidious plot to overthrown the Council and to use humans as expendable food.

Blood Born is an exciting romantic urban fantasy starring two strong lead characters and a deep support cast who not only enhance the story line, but in several cases look like they could lead to future paranormal romantic thrillers. Although dreams as a first meeting conduit has been used before, the sub-genre audience will enjoy biting into the two Linda’s fast-paced tale.

Harriet Klausner

Moonshine
Alaya Johnson
Dunne, Mar 2010, $24.99
ISBN 9780312565473

In 1920s Manhattan, Zephyr Hollis is a rare human immune to vampires. The offspring of a demon hunter, she is a social activist who always makes time for the Family Action Committee for Nonhuman Laborers equal rights protests of City Hall (to the chagrin of Mayor Jimmy Walker) and teaches at a Lower East Side night school for underprivileged paranormal.

Considered a softhearted liberal, Zephyr is surprised when her student Amir the djinn suggest she kill vampire mobster Rinaldo. However, Amir never explains why Rinaldo must die, but she agrees as she can use the money he offers. Zephyr turns to the ruthless Turn Boys for insider trading information even as her hunting father prepares to kill them and the bloodsuckers high on a new customized street drug try to dine on her.

Moonshine is a fabulous urban historical fantasy that will have readers believing in a paranormal 1920s New York City though Gentleman Jimmy is probably turning over in his grave. The amusing story line never takes it self seriously even when blood (not always red) flows. Although the city (and somewhat story line) is inundated by the horde of supernatural species, fans will enjoy the Roaring Twenties Manhattan adventures of the Vampire Suffragette

Harriet Klausner

The Selkie Bride
Melanie Jackson
Love Spell, Feb 2010, $7.99
ISBN: 9780505528346

In 1923 recently widowed Megan Colbin believes that in death her late abusive husband did one good deed for her unlike what he did to her in life; he left her a cottage near allegedly cursed Findloss, Scotland. A storm buried the coastal village under tons of sand only fifty years later, Findloss resurfaced with all its buildings intact, but not a soul or human remains anywhere.

Lachlan arrives from seemingly the sea and introduces himself to Megan. He explains he is a Selkie warrior who is on a mission to prevent a nasty peer from causing havoc on land and at sea; and he is also seeking the human female whose heart has called him. As the widow and the Selkie investigate, they learn Megan’s husband and his family were implicated in a wizard’s evil that needs to be destroyed before more innocent people under the sea and on the coast die.

The Selkie Bride is a fascinating historical romantic fantasy with a delightful lead couple who holds the plot together. However, it is the evil villain who steals the show in this exciting early twentieth century paranormal thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Time Meddlers: Undercover
Deborah Jackson
Lachesis Publishing, September 2009, $14.95
http://www.lachesispublishing.com/
ISBN: 9781897562437

In Ottawa, thirteen year old Matt Barnes and his best friend Sarah Sachs sneak into his home hoping to find clues to where his father is. They know he is caught back in time in the multiverse. They remain alert knowing his former caretaker and lab assistant Nadine is on the run. When Nadine breaks into the house, they observe her opening a hidden safe. After she leaves, they find microfilm inside the safe. Her father tells the two kids that the library has a reader. There they see highlights from WW II in Amsterdam.

After doing some research Matt recognizes the name of a Dutch undercover Special Operations Executive (SOE) operative Johanna “Celery” Van Duizen. They disobey her dad and reenter his father’s lab only Nadine follows them. They push her into the time portal in which lands her in 1942 in Nazi occupied Amsterdam. The pair follows in terms of time, but switch location to England only to run into trouble with an elite British Royal Air Force unit who ignores their warning that the SOE has a deadly fate awaiting them.

This is a great time travel thriller with a super surprising final twist. The story line is fast-paced and loaded with action as Matt is obsessed with rescuing his dad lost in time and Nadine having his back end up in WW II England and Amsterdam at a key point in which the Dutch resistance is in trouble. Deborah Jackson interweaves the Dutch resistance to the German occupation especially hiding Jews like Anne Frank and her family and other targeted people from the Nazis as a key element in the strong plot. Middle school readers and anyone who read or saw the movie The Diary of Anne Frank (except Holocaust deniers) will enjoy this fine sequel to the Time Meddlers as courage is an equal opportunity trait that ignores religion, ethnic origin, age and gender.

Harriet Klausner

The Brain Thief
Alexander Jablokov
Tor, Jan 2010, $24.99
ISBN: 9780765322005

Wealthy Muriel Inglis sends an odd message to her only employee executive assistant Bernal Haydon-Rumi. Unable to comprehend what his employer wants and why she failed to go to the art gallery as planned; although he just came home from a South Dakota business trip, Bernal rushes over to her home, but she is not there and the house looks like a cyclone came through it.

However, as he ponders what next he notices a woman he realizes is her fleeing the house in a nightgown. He chases after her, but she escapes by stealing her neighbor’s Mercedes. The vehicle’s owner prevents Bernal from following by knocking him out. When Bernal regains consciousness he notices that his car is gone, but after cleaning up in his employer’s home, he sees his car is back. Frantic for Muriel’s safety and receiving messages from her he does not understand, Bernal visits Madeline Ungaro, who is working on a space exploratory AI project Hesketh funded by Muriel and loathed by private investigator Charis Fen who warns the desperate amateur sleuth to watch his back.

Although over the top of the Black Hills, The Brain Thief is a fast-aced thriller that grips the audience from the moment Bernal receives the first odd message and never slows down as he follows clues and receives happenstance assistance to learn what is going on. Fans will enjoy accompanying Bernal and fully appreciate the irony of his sleuthing throughout the hero’s cat and mouse chase.

Harriet Klausner

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
N.K. Jemisin
Orbit, Feb 25 2010, $13.99
ISBN: 9780316043915

Barbaric warrior Baroness Yeine Darr lives in the Northern Kingdom of Darr. When her mother dies mysteriously, she has no time to grieve or investigate. Instead she is “invited” to come to the center of the universe by the Emperor of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by her grandfather the Dekarta Arameri ruler of all. In the capital city of Sky, a bewildered Yeine learns her grandfather the ruler names her his third heir along with her cousins once removed twins Lady Scimina and Lord Relad.

Confused and bewildered over her selection to the competition to replace the aging Dekarta, Yeine soon realizes her role at court is to be an expendable pawn used by her cousins as each has ambitions to be the next ruler. However, she also learns more about her family’s history and the gods serving them; losers in the Gods War eons ago who humiliatingly must bow to the mortals as their retribution for the crime of defeat. She proves to have backbone though all at court thought she would and intelligence that none thought she had while trying to save the kingdoms and free the god-slaves.

The first tale of the Inheritance Trilogy is a fascinating adaptation fantasy told through the filter of the heroine who uses her experiences as a chieftain and lessons from her late mother to understand the glamorous cesspool she has been tossed into. Yeine is a terrific lead protagonist who keeps the deep story line focused whether she deals with her grandfather, her amoral rivals, the slave-gods especially Nahadoth. Although the engaging story line is simplified too much between the forces of good and bad, readers will enjoy the opening account of a fully developed convoluted world in which debts of the soul are paid by losing your rights as Nahadoth the Nightlord One of the Three and now Yeine know the difference between the slave and the princess.

Harriet Klausner

Last Of The Ravens
Linda Winstead Jones
Silhouette Nocturne, Jan 2010, $5.25
ISBN: 9780373618262

Feeling bone tired, consultant Miranda Lynch decides to take a needed respite from her consulting work. She has not a break since her sister Jessica died in an accident four years ago in which her spirit said to her “I love you”. Miranda decides to hide away in the Tennessee Mountains where no one will ask her for her help on solving a crime, which she hopes means no communication with ghosts, the source of her information.

During her sojourn, Miranda meets mountain man Brennus Korbinian, who is the last of the Korbinian species who can shapeshift into ravens. They are attracted to one another to the shock of each as neither expected to meet their soulmate in this lifetime. However, the Order of the Cahir captures the two of them with threats to kill the monsters if they fail to do their bidding.

This is an exciting fresh romantic fantasy starring two fascinating lead characters and villains who are sinister without turning cartoonish. The story line is fast-paced and filled with action as Miranda wonders whether fortune has allowed her to overcome the Lynch Love Curse or not; on the other hand Bren believes his soulmate will enable the Korbinian to survive at least one more generation if they can escape captivity. Linda Winstead Jones provides a strong thriller.

Harriet Klausner