At Amazon

Joseph Delaney’s The Last Apprentice series has shot to the top of my must-buy list. I originally bought the two books in hardback because of the covers. The images are stark and somber, kind of spooky actually. More than that, they intrigued me, made me wonder what kind of world was trapped within the pages.

So I bought the first one, put it on the shelf and told myself I’d get around to it when I got ready to read to my son Chandler. We read all the time for his Accelerated Reader program. Unfortunately, Delaney’s books haven’t made that list, though I intend to push for it at his school because I’m plenty willing to read the stories again. This time to him.

But after buying the second book a few months later, I realized I’d made a considerable investment on books that I didn’t know anything about. There wasn’t even much in the way of reviews on them. So, late one night, I cracked the first one open. It’s even reviewed here, so you can find out what I thought. And now, less than a week later, I’ve read the second one. Couldn’t stop myself. I know there’s a third book in the works (and I’m dying to know which Delaney explores first, more of the Spook’s background, more of Mam’s background, or more of this ever-growing world they all inhabit) but I don’t know how long I’m going to have to wait on it.

But to the second book…

What you need to know is this (if you don’t want to go looking for my review of the first book): Tom Ward is the seventh son of a seventh son in an England countryside that exists some three or four hundred years ago. As such, there’s not much in the way of inheritance for him. The farm goes to the old son, his brother Jack in this case. And his father found apprenticeships for the rest of his sons.

Tom ended up with Old Gregory, the Spook. As a spook, Tom has been assigned to a venerable trade: chasing off ghosts, boggarts, and witches. He’s been trained to dig pits, cover the insides with mixtures of iron, salt, and glue to trap the supernatural creatures, and cover it all with specially crafted stone slabs marked with warnings to keep people away, or from releasing the beasties they’ve gone to the trouble of imprisoning.

The Last Apprentice: Curse of the Bane takes place about six months after the first book. It opens up with thirteen-year-old Tom called to a church to rescue the priest there from a powerful Ripper, a kind of boggart, that’s feasting on the man’s blood. The Spook is at home sick. Even worse, it’s the Spook’s brother who is the priest who’s being fed on.

The first chapter is a whirlwind of action, drawing us straightaway into the world of the Spook. Told in first-person, we hear Tom’s voice, his fears and his struggles, up close and immediate. He succeeds in his endeavor, but there is a price.

Later, after the Spook has recovered, they journey to Priestown for the priest’s funeral. Before they leave, the Spook tells Tom about an evil that dwells in the catacombs beneath Priestown. It’s called the Bane, and the Spook fought it twenty years ago, barely escaping with his life. Legend says that the Little People, the Serengeti, imprisoned the Bane beneath the town, but that its power continues to grow. It’s even said that the Bane can now control the thoughts of the priests that live in the church above it.

The Spook vows to attempt once again to banish the Bane while he’s there.

But the matter becomes even more complicated when the Quisitor arrives in Priestown at the same time they’re there. The Quisitor has been assigned to rid the countryside of witches and those who traffic with Darkness. The Spook is at the top of the Quisitor’s list.

Tom quickly learns that the Quisitor is an arrogant bully who uses his power for his own good. Sometimes the Quisitor will accuse people of witchery and have them thrown off their lands just so he can acquire it and sell it for profit.

When he first sees the Quisitor, Tom feels sorry for the captives bound in an iron cage who have been brought to Priestown to be tried as witches. Even more shocking, Alice – the young witch who befriended Tom in the first book – is one of the captives. Tom feels like they have to rescue her, but the Spook forbids it.

Unfortunately, the Quisitor soon learns that the Spook is in the area and goes looking for him, quickly finding him after getting the local priest to take Tom into custody. After Tom’s escape, he has a close brush with the Bane and ends up having to save his master and Alice.

Once the traps are sprung, Tom goes into motion. But it’s not the action that truly draws the attention, though that is extremely well done. It’s the characterization that drives the story. We get to find out more about the Spook’s early life, and more about the mystery that surrounds Tom’s mam, who deliberately had seven sons by a seventh son so that he could take up the Spook trade and gave him knowledge she never gave any of her other children.

The atmosphere of the book is chilling and compelling. When you’re in the catacombs with Tom, you’re going to have to fight the urge to look over your shoulder the whole time. And you won’t be able to read quickly enough. Every time you think you’ve reached a safe place to take leave of Tom, the Spook, or Alice for a little while, you’re going to find that a twist in the plot has put them all at risk and at odds again.

I love these characters, how they fit together even though by their natures they shouldn’t. And I love the murky, musty, dangerous world they inhabit.

Delaney has created a page-turning experience both times out. And these are his first two books. I can’t imagine what he’s going to learn as he goes along, but I’ll be picking up the books as they come out.

Even though both books are stand-alones, with no cliffhangers in them, you’re going to be drawn to the story of the characters, wanting to know more and more as you go. I can’t wait.

  At Amazon

Drive features a hard-bitten protagonist who moves through life and the story as quickly as a torqued-out V-8 engine. He’s a driver, a guy behind the wheel when a robbery goes down. If you go in to take down a bank, he’s the guy that’s going to get you out of Dodge. As long as you make it to the car. At a 160 pages, readers power through this short novel rapidly, but you have to look out for the hairpin turns of plot and the way the author plays with time. James Sallis is unfolding the forward momentum of the robbery gone bad while at the same time raising the curtains of the past to unveil where Driver came from.

Driver was a child of a broken home, and watched his mother kill his father in front of him. After that, he was put into foster care and learned to rely only on himself. When he was old enough, he stole the family car and made his way out to L.A. where he ended up doing stunt work for movies. Gradually that line of work overlapped a career driving getaway vehicles.

James Sallis has written six novels in the Lew Griffen New Orleans private eye series, and has a new series currently going about a troubled ex-homicide cop named Turner. Drive is an homage to the tough guy writers of the past.

The book reminded me a lot of the Gold Medal crime novels I grew up on, and of the books currently being published at Hardcase Crime Publishing (www.hardcasecrime.com). They’re taut actioners with a glimpse of heart and soul that don’t stand in the way of rapid-fire pacing.

It also reminds me of the Richard Stark novels Donald Westlake was putting out about a thief named Parker.  Duane Swierczynski’s The Wheelman struck similar chords recently.Drive is a short, punchy read that’s not going to change your life or present some existentialistic view of morality that going to cause you to question your place in the universe, but it will make time pass almighty quickly. It quickly sucks you in at the starting line and whips you right along in its slipstream like a bullet as it roars along.

This is what diversionary entertainment is all about!

  At Amazon

I’ve been reading Robert B. Parker since 1978. He has three series currently in the works. His long-running Spenser series, the Sunny Randall series about a female private eye, and Jesse Stone, the police chief in a small town. All of them have commonalities and often move through the same world of supporting characters.In addition to his mystery/suspense series, Parker has also written stand-alones and Westerns, including the recent Appaloosa. I’m looking forward to his first YA out next year. It’s called The Edenville Owls, and the title alone has me curious.The first Spenser book of his I ever read was Promised Land, which was – coincidentally – the first book that introduced Spenser’s relationship with Hawk, the street-smart black enforcer who’s been Spenser’s best friend through thick and thin.

During these past twenty-eight years, I’ve grown but Spenser still maintains the same eternal vigilance he’s always shown, and always remained more or less true to his roots. He’s the quintessential private eye, the tough guy with the smart lip, and he’s not afraid of anybody. An ex-boxer, Spenser knows his way around a physical confrontation, whether it’s with fists or with pistols. However, he’s also probably the best-read and one of the best gourmets (hats off to Nero Wolfe as the best) and best ladies’ men out there.

Spenser has a wide circle of friends. There’s Susan Silverman, his lover, Hawk, his friend, Paul Giacomin, his surrogate son, Frank Belson and Martin Quirk, the homicide guys. And dozens besides. Spenser has helped them all out of tough spots now and again.

But the one person many fans seem split over is April Kyle. In the book Ceremony, Spenser was recruited by Susan to help find a wayward teenager that was one of Susan’s students. As it turned out, April ran away from home to become self-sufficient – and immediately fell into a life of prostitution. However, she was with some heavy-handed creeps that were destined to use her and lose her.

Spenser rescued April Kyle from what was doomed to be a short, unhappy life. However, since April refused to go back home and threatened only to run away again if anyone made her go home, Spenser elected an innovative course and talked to professional madam Patricia Utley. Utley agreed to move April Kyle from the streets into penthouse prostitution, at least saving her as much as they were able.

A few years later, April Kyle became a woman and fell in love. Then she was taken away again. Spenser was once more called on to rescue her in Taming A Seahorse. At the end of the novel, April kind of gave up on love and returned to the life she’d made for herself.

In my own view, I think Spenser (and Parker) played true to their ideas of individual independence by thinking outside the box. A lot of fans were shocked. Some of them were appalled. It gave me some really deep thoughts to consider about how we fit into life and how much freedom we have to give other people we care about.

Over the years, Parker has taken a lot of flack about the April Kyle books. I have to wonder if he sat down to compose this story with trepidation or a confidence to once more tweak the noses of the moral majority.

Because April Kyle is back in Hundred Dollar Baby, and she’s brought a ton of trouble with her. She shows up in Spenser’s office and he doesn’t even know her. Then she quickly explains that she’s opened up a brothel for the upper class. Unfortunately, organized crime members are now trying to muscle in on the operation. Spenser agrees to take the pressure off April and invites Hawk into the mix.

Of course, that’s just the jumping off point of the novel. Spenser still has a lot of dangerous ground to cover, and a lot of soul-searching to do as he once more takes up the gauntlet to defend April Kyle’s honor like a knight errant. Except that Spenser is no one’s fool and knows that more is going on that what is seen at first blush.

It’s hard to discuss much about the plot without giving too much away. The writing is tight and lean, a pleasure to read as always. The humor and snappy patter is there, but I know that many of the readers who had a problem with the eventual outcome concerning April Kyle’s employment are going to have problems with this one because of Parker’s win-win portrayal of prostitution.

There are some interesting moment between Spenser and Hawk, and even some with Teddy Sapp, the tough guy from Atlanta, Georgia Spenser met during Hugger Mugger. As always, Parker builds his characters adroitly, fleshing them out – at least as they’re needed for the book, but more than well enough for me to see them and hear them – in a few quickly chosen words, then letting their actions and what they say define them the rest of the way.

I had a good time with this one. I sat down to read a few chapters and ended up finishing it before I went to bed. If you’re a Parker fan, or if you’ve dropped out for a few books but want to know more about April Kyle, this is a good book to pick up.

  At Amazon

With all the fantasy novels filling the YA and teen racks of late, you can almost find anything you want.  The hardest problem I have is sorting through book to find one that really stands apart from the rest of the pack.  There are tremendously good reads out there, but after a while, even the good ones start to blur together.

I picked up Joseph Delaney’s The Last Apprentice:  Revenge of the Witch because of the cover alone.  It just looked different, old and somber, and – well – sort of creepy.  The setting of the book seems to be 300 or 400 years ago, in England.

The land is filled with small villages with interesting names and deep, rich histories.  Tom Ward, the protagonist of the novel, lives next to Hangman’s Hill where a lot of soldiers were hanged after a particularly fierce battle.  Sometimes at night, those soldiers can be heard moaning and their weight still bends the branches and shakes the trees.

Tom is twelve years old.  The story is told in first-person, which makes him immediately identifiable and pulls the reader in close.  He’s the seventh son during a time when primogeniture (the English law which stated that a farm was given to one son, usually the eldest, so the land wouldn’t be divided up till it was worthless) was in effect.  After the father gave the land to the firstborn, he tried to find apprenticeships for the rest of his sons.

By the time Tom’s father got around to him, he’d begged about all the favors he could from skilled craftsmen.  As a result, Tom gets apprenticed to Old Gregory, who is known as the Spook.

The Spook is responsible for chasing off ghosts and boggarts, and for binding witches.  No one in any of the neighboring villages truly counts him as a friend, and most avoid him when they see him coming.  Unless they’re beset by ghosts, boggarts, or a witch.Not only is Tom a seventh son, but he’s the seventh son of a seventh son, which marks him as something extraordinary.  He has powers beyond most men, and perhaps even beyond that of the Spook.

After he’s apprenticed to the Spook, Tom goes on a journey with him, going through a test, then ending up at the Spook’s house where many surprises await him.  One of those surprises if the living witch buried in a pit covered by iron bars in the Spook’s garden.  Tom also learns that many of the Spook’s apprentices ran away over the years, but that the last one was killed by the witch now imprisoned in the pit in the garden.

All of that becomes grist for the mill as Tom strives to understand the new life he’s taken on.  I absolutely loved the countryside and the world Delaney is building to take his readers through.  It’s calm and simple, and easy to understand what’s at stake.It’s also easy to see that Tom and the Spook are going to have a hard go of it against the supernatural enemies they make as well as the fact that the human world they’re protecting will turn their backs on them.

Delaney also does a really good job bringing Tom to life.  He feels like a real twelve-year-old boy caught in circumstances beyond his control.  The narration style is compelling and pulled me right through the story, making me read far beyond what I’d intended to.

I think the one element that truly sets this book apart from so much of the fantasy that’s out there is the genuine creepiness of everything that’s going on.  Harry Potter has all kinds of fanciful creatures, but that requires a bit more willing suspension of disbelief.

Delaney works with the fears we’ve all had since childhood:  ghosts, goblins, witches, and other things that go bump in the night.  Tom’s fights with the witch, Mother Malkin, and her sister Bony Lizzie and Tusk and even poor dead Billy, the previous apprentice, are scary things that came to malevolent life inside my head.

I read the book at night, to relax.  That was a mistake of sorts.  I ended up going to bed later than I’d anticipated and didn’t enjoy a restful slumber until I was deeply asleep.

I would caution younger readers and parents of younger readers to make certain nightmare-prone kids don’t get their hands on these books too soon.  The descriptions, the menace, and the atmosphere are all compelling, and just a little too real.  The other side of the coin is that this is the kind of book adults will love to read on their own or share with a younger reader to discuss and talk about.

The story’s pacing is excellent.I just locked into the book and couldn’t put it down.  Every page I turned, I learned a little bit more, and more was at stake.  These are the kinds of books readers want. 

The good news is that I already have the second book, The Last Apprentice:  Curse of the Bane.  Even though I hadn’t read the first book, I picked up both at the same time because of those wonderful covers!  I’m really looking forward to it, and I’ve learned that a third book is already on the way.

  At Amazon  

Tess Gerritsen’s mystery/thriller series about Detective Jane Rizzoli and Dr. Maura Isles keeps hitting the bestseller lists, and deservedly so.  As a former internist (she started writing full-time once she started hitting those bestseller lists), Gerritsen’s medical knowledge is first-rate and is always interesting.

Previous books include The Surgeon, The Apprentice, The Sinner, Body Double, and Vanish. The on-going relationship between the two protagonists, Rizzoli and Isles, is what draws me back to the series time after time.  The women are both strong and independent in same but different ways, and they’re equally vulnerable on separate fronts.

Rizzoli is a hardnosed, no-nonsense cop that goes for the throat of any problem placed before her.  She takes no prisoners.  She also has a very black-and-white view of the world that Dr. Isles doesn’t necessarily agree with in every instance.  In The Mephisto Club, Jane is happily married and has a baby.  Fans who have followed the series have seen all those additions to Rizzoli’s life take place during the course of the series.

Dr. Isles is the coroner of the team.  Where Rizzoli grills suspects and stays after them till she catches the first lie and breaks the investigation open, Dr. Isles solicits answers from the dead during autopsies.  Dr. Isles has gone through a bitter divorce (fans have even gotten to meet the ex and form their own opinions of the guy) and now finds herself in love with a priest, Father Daniel Brophy.  Up until this book, Brophy and Dr. Isles have teetered on the edge of having a relationship, something that neither one of them might survive in their respective job fields.  Or emotionally.  And Rizzoli definitely wouldn’t support such an liaison because of her friendship with Dr. Isles and her church upbringing.

Rizzoli and Dr. Isles get called out to a crime scene where a young woman named Lori Ann Tucker has been violently murdered.  Even seasoned homicide investigators get shocked by the macabre nature of the murder.

While Rizzoli is there, Dr. Isles arrives and takes custody of the body, which has been subjected to amputations of the head and hand.  Satanic symbols, upside down crosses, and a Latin phrase, “Peccavi”, written on the wall fill the apartment.  It doesn’t take long for whispers of a ritualistic murder to start up.

Back at the lab, Dr. Isles processes the body, making the chilling discovery of the fact that one of the hands recovered at the scene doesn’t belong to the murder victim.  Somewhere out there, another young woman lies dead or has been horribly maimed.

Following up on the leads, Rizzoli quickly comes into contact with The Mephisto Foundation.  They claim to be an organization dedicated to finding and destroying demons.  Rizzoli doesn’t believe in demons, though, and isn’t exactly enamored of the foundation’s wealthy and influential leader, Anthony Sansone.  Sansone makes no bones about it:  he definitely believes in demons, and claims to be descended from one.

The novel crashes through chapters, involving more murders and deliberate clues left by the murderer.  A female police detective is murdered next, followed by another death, this one hitting closer to home for Rizzoli and Dr. Isles.  As the suspense ratchets up, so does the uncertainty about things that go bump in the night.

The Mephisto Club  flirts with the line between suspense and supernatural. Part of the action leaps over to Lily, a young woman who’s spent the last twelve years running from a demon.  Her life is harsh and stark, and the reader instantly feels sympathetic toward her.

In the midst of the investigation and the murders, though, it’s the human stories about the two protagonists that really take center stage.  Dr. Isles’s maybe relationship with Father Brophy reaches a sudden and irrevocable climax, and Rizzoli’s parents split up, totally blowing Rizzoli’s world and her sense of how things are supposed to be.

When Rizzoli finds out what has happened between Dr. Isles and Father Brophy, then tension between the two women becomes sharp and wicked.  They’ve been together through so many emotional things as well as danger mixed in with their investigations that it seemed nothing would tear them apart.  But this could be the one thing that will. Gerritsen’s writing is amazing as usual.  She propels her readers through the story with an accustomed ease.  She adds layers to the characters in quickly drawn scenes, and shows that Rizzoli and Dr. Isles live in the same real world we inhabit, and that their problems aren’t that far removed from ours.

In this book, Gerritsen also gets to use some of her personal interests in archeology, history, and religion as she leavens her crime story with all of these things.  She trots out a lot of information, but you never trip over it as you read, and it advances the story in twisted ways that made me start wondering what was truly going on.  Suddenly there was more going on than just the mystery of who was committing the murders.

The novel is set in Boston.  The city comes alive as Rizzoli and Dr. Isles move through it.  But Gerritsen also brings Italy to life through Lily, the young girl on the run for her life.  The basilica beneath Rome in particular caught my attention because, as Gerritsen points out, it was used in one of the Indiana Jones movies.  It’s a perfectly creepy place, and the secrets that Gerritsen reveals through Lily ring true.  It makes me want to go see it for myself.

Although The Mephisto Club stands well enough on its own, I’d really encourage readers to begin reading the earlier books first.  If you haven’t read Gerritsen before, I think you’ll be back.  Reading this book first takes away some of the twists and turns of the earlier novels that really pack a punch.  Even if you think you’re just interested in the supernatural/historical/Da Vinci-like puzzle, I think you’re going to come back to the series.  Even so, you’ll enjoy the other books anyway.

Gerritsen is a gifted writer, one who likes to get it right, and she moves a story along at a breakneck pace.  She also provides a Reader’s Guide and a Historical Background on her webpage at www.tessgerritsen.com.