Deborah Coates

So this one was recommended by Charles de Lint so I thought I'd give it a try. The charm of this book was in the character of the heroine. The mystery was so so and I'd pretty much figured it out early on and parts of it were predictable but I loved the heroine.

She was home on compassionate leave from the army to attend her sister's funeral. She was tough and competent. I liked that she wasn't girly. She wasn't TSTL. She didn't need a guy to do her thinking or her fighting for her. I also enjoyed that she wasn't snarky or funny. I've had a surfeit of that type lately and while I enjoy a snarky heroine, it was fun to read a different character. She started bar fights and carried her crow bar into any dubious situation and she really just wanted to hit someone with it. She was angry and determined.

The paranormal element was fairly well drawn. It was there without taking over the story in explanations and such. You knew just what you needed to in order to understand the story.

The setting was very clear and you got a real sense of place, the wide open prairies and how desolate it was, how empty etc.

All in all, although this wasn't a riveting page turner, I really enjoyed it and recommend it.… (more)

This is an interesting book I discovered thanks to a reviews on a review blog I follow: in short, Sergeant Hallie Michaels comes back home from Afghanistan on compassionate leave after the death of her sister Dell – an apparent suicide. What's different about Hallie is that, after a near-death experience on the battlefield, she now sees ghosts. And Dell's ghost seems intent on leading Hallie on an investigation on what looks like a series of murders tied to a conspiracy.

The story is compelling and it leads in quite unexpected directions, building slowly momentum while fleshing out the various characters in a very appealing way. I liked Hallie quite a bit: the author balances her on the dangerous edge between grief, post-stress traumatic syndrome and hard-headed determination. One of the more appealing facets of her personality is her reaction to the ghosts: Hallie takes their presence in stride, with what looks like a soldierly, no-nonsense attitude that is quite refreshing, showing how she is not the kind of person that's easily swayed from her goals.

Besides a well-crafted protagonist, the book excels in the way the ghosts themselves are presented: no eerie and moaning presences, but rather silent, almost distracted ones that nevertheless nudge Hallie, little by little, toward the necessary discoveries. It's a subtle way of approaching the paranormal that I found quite appealing and that was well balanced both with Hallie's down-to-Earth attitude and the story setting.

If I were to find some faults in this book they would be in the depiction of the "bad guys": they feel a little stereotyped, a little bit "too much" for want of a better word. But it's truly a minor nitpick in a book that works very well through a faultless mood-setting and keeps the reader interested and involved from start to finish.
… (more)

I'm very bitter about having read this book. Why bitter? Well, I have been tricked. The cover is beautiful, which is why I picked it up in the first place, but of course the cover tells a story not mentioned in this poorly written book. The inside flap gives a brief look what's inside, describing a ghost story.

I'm typing fast, in a rush, so forgive my grammar, but here's what you need to know: this book is awful. The story drags on and on and reaches its conclusion in the last few pages with little explanation. Badly written, badly executed, story-wise. Just a big fat UGH of a book.… (more)