Tag Archives: novel

Shadowland by Jenny Carroll (2000) – BR00030 (2004) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸

The PolyBlog
March 7 2004

Plot or Premise

Susannah is a mediator, a la the Sixth Sense, helping ghosts resolve their earthly problems so they can depart. She lived a life of school problems and adventure in New York, hung out with her visiting dead father’s ghost, and got in trouble with the law. Then Mom married a guy from California and they moved in with the new family — a new stepdad and three new stepbrothers. And her first day of school? She finds out that her school’s principal, a priest, is also a mediator. She’s not alone! Ever!

What I Liked

The introduction of a character who can physically interact with ghosts is great, and the introduction of Susannah to the ghost Jesse who has been haunting her new bedroom for the last 150 years is actually funny. There are lots of humourous bits as she moves into the new school and meets the resident bully — a rejected popular girl who committed suicide over a boy and who now wants to exact revenge on him.

What I Didn’t Like

Some of the clichés used around the vengeful ghost are a bit much and the constant injuries to various people while the mediator skates through uninjured are rather exaggerated.

The Bottom Line

She sees dead people.

Note: Also published under the title I Love You To Death.

Blunt Darts by Jeremiah Healy (1984) – BR00039 (2003) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
October 9 2003

Plot or Premise

John Cuddy is asked by a grandmother to investigate the disappearance of her grandson, a prominent judge’s son…even though the judge doesn’t seem to want people looking for the boy. Cuddy goes looking anyway, even when a corrupt Sheriff tries to direct him away rather forcefully.

What I Liked

A huge cast of characters, with a couple of the series regulars just beginning to be fleshed out a little.

What I Didn’t Like

A few of the characters were one-dimensional, fifth business to the storyline – only there to pass along a vital clue, and it was usually pretty obvious that the author was trying to slip it by, since Cuddy himself doesn’t catch it.

The Bottom Line

A great story.

So Like Sleep by Jeremiah Healy (1987) – BR00038 (2003) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
October 9 2003

Plot or Premise

John Cuddy gets asked by a friend to look into what appears to be an open-and-shut case — a young impoverished black man tries to get ahead at university, dates a white co-ed, and then after she turns up dead, he confesses to the crime while holding the murder weapon. Everyone thinks he’s guilty, including him. But Cuddy finds a strange group of people involved — a whacked psychiatrist with strange ideas, an elderly fitness nut, a sports fan, seductive patients, and sundry lovers.

What I Liked

The main people were all well-characterized, although a few of them were a bit one-dimensional. Cuddy does a good job of detecting, pulling at a variety of strings until they unravel. Good backstories for some of the other series’ characters.

What I Didn’t Like

Some old characters show up, kind of predictable.

The Bottom Line

You’ll stay up late if you start reading this.

Field of Thirteen by Dick Francis (1998) – BR00018 (2001) – 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
March 4 2001

Plot or Premise

A collection of thirteen short stories, eight of which were published previously in various magazines.

What I Liked

  • Dead on Red – A contract killer kills a jockey for another jockey, but the results are not quite what the surviving jockey had desired. (4.00/5.00)
  • Song for Mona – A snobbish daughter is ashamed of her mother’s life and history while others find her charming and praise her. (4.00/5.00)
  • Collision Course – An editor loses his job and runs into snobs who won’t let him park his boat at their restaurant while he has dinner with three publishers. Turns out the owner is a up-and-comer who needs to win an upcoming race in order to attract horses to his farm. An interesting battle develops. (4.00/5.00)
  • Carrot for a Chestnut – Fixing a race by doping the horse with a doctored carrot. With a great twist at the end. (3.50/5.00)
  • Blind Chance – A man has a perfect way to know the outcomes of photo-finish races, and to make money on it. Until disaster strikes. (4.00/5.00)
  • Corkscrew – An honest man is charged with a crime and his lawyer swindles his parents out of the bail money. He doesn’t count on the road to justice being long and windy. (3.75/5.00)
  • The Day of the Losers — Money from an old robbery is the glue that holds this story together as the police attempt to fix a race in order to catch a crook. There are twists all around at the end. (3.50/5.00)
  • Haig’s Death – All the people who have their fates resting on the outcome of a race are all affected when the decision falls to the judge, whose fate has already been decided. Multiple storylines all lead to a combined finish. (3.50/5.00)

What I Didn’t Like

  • Raid at Kingdom Hill – A bomb scare at the racetrack, and money goes missing during the chaos. (2.00/5.00)
  • Bright White Star – The theft of a horse from an auction and a wandering tramp who is displaced from his home on the land…includes a great set-up/intro though — “Write us a story,” they said. I asked, “What about?” “About three thousand words,” they replied. (2.00/5.00)
  • Nightmare – A horse thief is running from his past where his father was killed during a theft. (2.50/5.00)
  • The Gift – A down-and-out alcoholic journalist finds the horseracing story of the century, but may be too drunk to write it. (2.00/5.00)
  • Spring Fever – A woman falls in love with her jockey and is taken advantage of, at first. (2.50/5.00)

The Bottom Line

An average Francis collection.

Double or Nothing by Peter David (1999) – BR00026 (2001) – 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
March 4 2001

Plot or Premise

This is the fifth in the series about a vengeful attack on the universe by an “unknown” assailant who uses biological weapons to wipe out races in the Federation. This book puts Riker on the Excalibur, dealing with Shelby et al; Mackenzie on a secret undercover mission to infiltrate the assailant’s lair; and, Picard undercover to do the same thing, eventually linking up with Mackenzie.

What I Liked

There are a series of one-liners with Shelby and Riker that are occasionally funny, Mackenzie’s infiltration is really interesting at the start and his character is great, and there is an interesting interplay between Admirals at one point.

What I Didn’t Like

The Riker and Shelby section is not very well-written, Mackenzie’s infiltration becomes repetitive at the end, and when Picard and he link up, it makes little to no sense for most of it. However, my real problem with this story is the sequencing…up until now in the series, you haven’t known why the assailant is doing what he is doing, or even who it is. This one reveals all, and the motives are kind of a cliché. The New Frontier portion stays true to form while the rest of the interactions with The Next Generation universe is more of a caricature than reality.

The Bottom Line

Readable.