Note: Although it has been a long, long time since we did this last, we sometimes have what we call a doubleshot review. This is two reviews done by two different reviewers to provide different takes on the same book. Sometimes they'll be in agreement, sometimes they won't be. They'll often focus on different things, giving our followers a few viewpoints about the book. Today is the first half of our doubleshot review from Judi Moore. Then in two days, on Sunday morning, you'll get BigAl's take on the same book.
Genre: Cozy Mystery/Paranormal
Description:
Native American medium, Sam Firecloud, is
persuaded by his partner, Lacey Fitzpatrick, to take her parents, her brother
and his wife, on a six-day cruise around the Californian Channel Islands to
celebrate Lacey’s parents’ fiftieth wedding anniversary. Sam’s special talent
becomes extremely useful during the trip.
Author:
Melissa Bowersock is an eclectic, and
prolific, award-winning author who writes in a variety of fiction and
non-fiction genres: paranormal, biography, western, action, romance, fantasy,
spiritual, and satire. She has been both traditionally and independently
published. One of her several ongoing series is this “Lacey Fitzpatrick and Sam
Firecloud Mystery Series”. She writes romance under the pen name Amber Flame.
She has a tattoo on the inside of her left
wrist that says IMAGINE. In her next life, she plans to be an astronaut.
Appraisal:
Thinking up the idea of the cruise, booking
it, and the cruise itself are all described in detail. The
cruise sounded lush. One felt it might be a trip the author herself had
recently enjoyed. I would too!
About a third of the way in, Sam senses
something ghostly, and the Fitzpatrick-Firecloud team go into action.
Although what there is in the way of
‘action’ is satisfying, it is a very slight idea, and one feels that a lot
of padding has been packed around it. The padding is interesting, and
beautifully written, but there is much more travelogue to this short book than
ghost hunting.
For me, a big part of the enjoyment of this
series is the Native American element. That was almost entirely missing in this
novella.
Add to this that Bowersock’s extensive back
catalogue is listed at the front of the book and given again, with a paragraph
about each book, at the back.
An engaging, but very slight, addition to
Bowersock’s oeuvre.
One for completists.
Buy now
from: Amazon US Amazon UK
Format/Typo
Issues:
No significant issues.
Rating: ***
Three Stars
Reviewed
by: Judi Moore
Approximate word count: 30-35,000 words
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