Review: The Prophet

Reviewed by Jen
 

Amanda Stevens really put me through the wringer with this third installment of her Graveyard Queen series. When we last saw Amelia, she was on her way back to Charleston to answer a summons for help from John Devlin. It's almost like The Kingdom was a "time-out" from the action of The Restorer in many ways.

But now Amelia is back in the thick of things. Back at the old cemetery where she was working before. Surrounded by the same ghosts. In love with the same man. With the same roadblocks. Only maybe it's worse this time around.

My heart ached right along with Amelia's when Devlin came back on the canvas. They've been apart for months and to call things tentative between them would be an understatement. There are even questions now about whether he has moved on with someone else. This, as the presence of his dead wife Mariama continues to hold onto him with both hands.

The ghost of former cop Robert Fremont is haunting Amelia, pushing her to solve his murder. It's a tangled mystery, wrapped up in Devlin's past, Mariama's treachery, blackmail, betrayal, adultery, and the occult. It's very, very creepy. Not just the ghosts, which are indeed scary, but the bugs and the zombie drugs really put it over the top.

The distance and deception between Devlin and Amelia kept me tense and unhappy for the first half of the book. I found myself cringing every time Amelia began another Q&A about Mariama. Everybody has something to say about her. Everyone either loved her or they hated her. And she's been dead for years, but everyone still wants to talk about her. If I didn't know Amelia was dealing with her ghost, I'd think she was the most lovesick, pathetic person on the planet to bring her up every five seconds.

But when things started to pick up, the book was off and running. I loved the way Stevens kept me guessing until the very end. About who the killer was. About the motive. About the real circumstances surrounding Mariama & Shani's deaths. I loved the tie in to the African root magic. And the ending. Oh. My. God. I thought I was going to have a heart attack.

There will be a fourth book, thank goodness.  And I am anxious to find out what repercussions will come from the big climax here.  4 stars.

*ARC Provided by NetGalley 

Click to purchase: Amazon

The Prophet

by Amanda Stevens

Release Date: April 24, 2012

Publisher: Mira

DNF: Darkness Falling

Life is too short to force yourself to keep reading.  

I requested Darkness Falling from NetGalley because I liked the premise: Four people inside a radio station find they may be the only normal people left alive after a strange bright light turns the rest of the town in pod-people zombies. I like zombies. But well-over 100 pages in, imagine my surprise when I have yet to see the walking undead. What I did see was nothing like the blurb... except the white light.

The story actually follows about nine or 10 people, scattered in or around Denver. Three are in a plane when the rest of the crew and passengers disappear. My mind went straight to The Langoliers and never left. There is the obvious dismay and confusion that follows, then more of the same once they get the plane to the ground. At the same time, we see the event from the perspective of a serial killer, a schizophrenic and the promised radio station crowd, respectively. It is incredibly drawn out. We get a lot of characterization, which can be a good thing, but it was just too much. 

I was most annoyed by the exact same revelations over and over again, such as "Why would people close the doors behind them?" when everyone is trying to figure out where the town went. You know what? I would never ask that question, yet the folks in the book did, over and over and over. Another annoyance: a movie or literary reference every five seconds. One or twice could create some common ground between the characters and the audience, but we're talking like 50 different references. 

So, back to the zombie thing... I'm more than a 1/3 of the way into the book and I start questioning myself about whether this was really a zombie book after all. So I go to Goodreads and discover two things: 1) While the zombies do eventually make an appearance, the book is basically the set up installment for the series, with no resolution; and 2) It was originally released in 2002... part 2 didn't come out until six years later and there is still no word on number 3. So I sat there thinking to myself, why on earth would I keep reading this book?  Then I turned off my nook.  Like I said, life is too short, even if giving up on a book makes me feel like a failure.

*After posting this review, a reader shared the following information with me: "Parts 1 and 2 that you mention were originally published as limited edition novellas, and they are included as *part* of Darkness Falling. Darkness Falling is essentially novellas 1 and 2 rewritten with additional material. The second novel in the trilogy is due in September 2012, and the third volume a year later."  Thank you, Stevie J, for correcting my error.

**ARC Provided by NetGalley

Darkness Falling

by Peter Cowther

Release Date: September 27, 2011

Publisher: Angry Robot

Original Release Date: September 1, 2002