The Dead Man is the second book of Goldman’s Jack Davis series and is written in the first-person point of view and Goldman does a wonderful job of allowing his readers to delve into the mind of his protagonist Jack Davis. The book opens with a gruesome double-murder set in December of 1959. A sheriff arrives on the scene in time to find a man covered in blood clutching a little girl to him. The girl is Maggie Brennan and the blood covered male is her uncle. Little Maggie had just witnessed a man killing her parents and only barely managed to escape herself. The case was unsolved and the culprits were never caught.

The scene changes again and the readers are given the chance to see the lone survivor, Maggie Brennan, in the present time. Sixty years later, Maggie does not seem to have gotten over the murder of her parents. She dreams of a man who has come to finish what he started. And yet, after awakening from her nightmare she wonders why it is so easy to kill yet hard to die. The thought sends a shiver down the reader’s spine and delivers a hint of suspense and foreshadowing.

Flash forward to the present day; Jack Davis is a former FBI agent who was let go by the bureau as he suffers from a movement disorder, the cause and cure of which is unknown, that gives him chronic shakes which makes him no longer fit for duty. Davis’ friend, Simon Alexander, however has a job that he thinks he’s perfect for.

The Harper Institute of the Mind, owned and run by billionaire Milo Harper, is primarily aiming to find a cure for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson disease. In the process, the institute is running many different tests and studies examining and attempting to understand the workings of the mind. One such study happens to be focusing on dreams and the people involved are dying. They’re not dying of natural causes either, because each one has died exactly how they dreamed they would. Now the Institute is facing a lawsuit that could shut them down. Harper needs someone to look into the study and the people involved and find out just what is going on. Jack Davis is his man.

Now, there are more than enough hints and foreshadowing throughout the book that the revelation of the murderer is not a surprise. In fact, by about halfway through the book, the identity of the murderer becomes rather glaringly obvious. This resulted in the creation of points in the story where the pace seemingly slowed down before once again picking back up. The reader, from the numerous clues and hints given, can already piece together ultimate conclusion while the protagonist is still stumbling along trying to solve the puzzle. This is, ultimately, what lead to the slowing of the story’s pace, and while it was irksome in some parts, it did not detract too much from the overall tale. The actual motivations of the killer were, however, quite a surprise and will definitely send a shiver down the reader’s spine.

Despite some segments where the story unfortunately began to lag, for the most part, Goldman’s The Dead Man is a well-paced, thrilling, and suspense-filled ride that refuses to let the reader go until the last word is read.

Joana’s Rating: (3 out of 5 stars)

A Charmed Death is actually the second book in Madelyn Alt’s Bewitching Mystery series, the first being The Trouble with Magic. That said, despite jumping into the series without a clear idea of how everything began and the back story behind certain characters I found myself able to follow along without much trouble. Granted I did not know the exact details that occurred in the previous book, but enough was repeated or mentioned in passing during A Charmed Death that a reader new to the series could keep up, and a returning reader could refresh their memory without feeling bombarded by the repetitive. That in itself is a difficult feat and Madelyn Alt managed it superbly.

A Charmed Death is told from the point of view of Maggie O’Neill a young woman nearing the big 3-0 who is still struggling to get completely out from under her mother’s thumb in the small town of Stony Mills while trying to come to terms with her abilities. Raised as a Catholic girl, her abilities and the things her friend and boss (Fellicity Dow) can do fly in the face of how she was raised. It is refreshing to stumble upon a character that is not in complete and utter denial or far too “okay” with the idea of new found powers, which seems to be the two extremes most authors place their characters at.

Maggie is comfortably situated somewhere in between the two extremes. On one hand she is a realistic person from a deeply religious and devoted family, who didn’t believe in witches and things that go bump in the night since science had ruled out the possibilities as far as she was concerned. On the other hand however, Maggie has seen irrefutable proof that magic does exist, and she herself has always had heightened awareness. Her employer serves not only as friend but as mentor as well and helps to guide her to better understanding her abilities. At this point most characters are still adamantly denying what they know is real or jump in head first, Maggie however is still conflicted on her feelings about everything. She does not deny the existence of magic but its existence and her use of it does contradict how she was raised. Maggie spends much of the book struggling to come to terms with herself, what is right, and what she really believes. Maggie makes considerable progress in finding herself, yet at the end of the book it takes something drastic to give Maggie that one last push she needs in order to begin to consciously and actively using her abilities to their fullest. It will be interesting to see in the next book what consequences and rewards will stem from this choice.

The characters of Alt’s story were amazingly well fleshed out, complex, and layered. At first one could not help feeling anger and resentment towards Amanda Roberson (the social princess) when viciously verbally attacked Tara Murphy (outcast and newcomer), yet upon her death and during the subsequent investigation one cannot help put feel pity for the misguided girl and the sad path she chose that ultimately lead to her own destruction. I could easily relate to the character Tara Murphy, and I even saw some of myself in this character, yet despite sympathizing with the girl there were times I had to frown at her actions. No she was not out of character, nor did Alt seem to miss the mark with the girl’s portrayal, it was simply that the character herself had a brazen streak in her that made the readers torn between hugging her and smacking her upside the head for her foolishness. It has been awhile since this reader found an author whose characters she could connect with and feel as those they were all personal acquaintances.

Though the character design was first class the story itself lacked a bit in originality. From the first meeting with Amanda Roberson I was able to guess, with amazing accuracy, the sequence of events that would occur. When it is revealed that the underground sex blog is authored by none other than Amanda Roberson herself I was not surprised, and had in fact suspected it for some time, nor was I shocked to discover the source of the girl’s substantial income. Honestly, when Maggie suspects the girl might be a drug pusher I wanted to roll my eyes in exasperation. The girl’s confidence and attitude clearly suggested someone quite capable of manipulating people, it wasn’t hard to make the jump to extortion. Her means and methods were more elaborate than I had anticipated, yet I was still on the mark when I suspected the girl manipulated and extorted the men flocking to.

The novel also begins to lag; Maggie is still unsure of her abilities and how to use them, she misses several key clues and hints and acts recklessly and as a result the plot lags while Maggie flounders about. The story begins to get back on track however when Felicity (Liss) Dow returns to the shop. With Liss at her side Maggie is steered back on track. It is obvious that Alt uses Liss to motivate and move Maggie along. This was exceptionally disappointing as I felt that without this one character the book would have completely petered out and died. Even with Liss’ return it still takes several more chapters for the ball to get rolling again. It isn’t until the book is three quarters gone that Maggie is entirely back on track and focusing on what the book is about, the murder mystery.

One thing to look forward to in the next book is brewing love triangle between Marcus, Maggie, and Tom. Maggie, despite her spirit guides contradicting affirmation, is under the false impression that Marcus is involved in a “torrid love affair” with Felicity, and thus she is blind to half of his advances and convinces herself the other half is “brotherly affections”. Her own romance with Deputy Tom Fielding was destroyed beyond repair as a result of the incidents mentioned in the first book. Maggie proceeds to spend the rest of the book eying Marcus, whom she believes to be off limits, and wishfully yearning for the return of Tom’s affections. Maggie goes so far as to withhold information to the murder investigation until the last possible second in hopes of showing up Tom and looking good in his eyes. Ah, we’re back in high school aren’t we? This of course backfires and Tom is even more upset with her. Despite all the evidence to the contrary Maggie still hopes to rekindle things with Tom and even adds his phone number to her new cell phone, despite believing it to be wishful thinking on her part. In the end this last bit of silliness on her part pays off in the end. After facing off against the murderer and coming out the worse for wear she blindly pushes buttons hoping to call someone on her speed dial for help before passing out. When she comes to she is met with Tom’s worry filled gray eyes. The book closes on a promising note for these two, Tom wants to give their relationship another try and though she is a bit afraid Maggie appears to be taking it one step at time. Marcus’ feelings are still unrealized by all but Maggie and I just know there are going to be some interesting explosions when this finally happens.

Despite it’s lag in the middle and the rather predictable plot, I will give Alt some points on some of the curve balls she did throw here and there, A Charmed Death makes for an entertaining and enjoyable read. Fantasy and Mystery fans both will enjoy reading this book and the author’s series. I am looking forward to reading the next installment.

Joana’s Rating: