Ghost of a Chance (Ghost Finders, #1) by Simon R. Green. © 2010 Ace Books. ISBN 9780441019168. Mass Market Paperback. Urban Fantasy. 272 pages. $7.99 US. Source: review copy

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Synopsis
The Carnacki Institute exists to Do Something About Ghosts: lay them to rest, send them packing, or kick their nasty ectoplasmic arses with extreme prejudice.

The Institute’s operatives are the best of the best. JC Chance: sharp, brave, charming and almost unbearably arrogant; Melody Chambers: science-geek techno-wizard extraordinaire who keeps the antisupernatural equipment running smoothly; and Happy Jack Palmer: the telepath with the gloomy disposition, is the last person anyone would want navigating through his head.

Their current assignment: investigate a major haunting deep underground at London’s Oxford Circus Tube Station. Difficult—and dangerous—enough without the added interference of a pair of agents from the infamous Crowley Project whose mission is much simpler: eliminate Chance, Chambers and Palmer, whatever the consequences…

Review
The Carnacki Institute of London—secretly located within the walls of Buckingham Palace—is to ghosts what Torchwood is to aliens (with a little of the Talamasca Caste thrown in). Their job is to protect the Queen’s country and people from the things that go bump in the night, and also to study them and gather knowledge of the arcane.

Ghost of a Chance is the first in a new series by popular author, Simon R. Green and begins with an incredibly creepy prologue. Let’s just say, I started this book around 1 a.m. and it didn’t take long for me to get unnerved (but a good kind of unnerved.) Read the rest of this entry »

Crashing Paradise: A Novel of the Menagerie by Christopher Golden and Tom E. Sniegoski. © 2007 Ace Books. (August 28, 2007) ISBN 978-0-441-01532-0. Paperback. Dark Fantasy. 278 pages. $7.99 US. [ Purchase ]

“In the fourth novel of the Menagerie, the Legion of Doom is hell-bent on breaking into Eden, and they’ve got the perfect captive to assist them: Eve, mother of all humanity—and all vampires. Only Doyle and the Menagerie can stop them from turning a blessed garden into a paradise lost.” [from the back cover]

While this is the first of the Menagerie series that I have read, I enjoyed it immensely nonetheless (this is one series you can pick up at anytime and still get the gist and understand what’s going on). Co-author Tom Sniegoski, known for the highly suspenseful and riveting “Fallen” series (dealing with fallen angels, recently made into a three part miniseries by ABC Family), has let this knowledge of Biblical mythos seep into the pages and help create a whole new world for readers to enjoy, while Christopher Golden displays some of his best supernatural work since the Buffy series. This book is chalked full of vampires, shape shifters, demons, angels and more, yet isn’t overwhelming to the reader to keep up with everyone and everything. Read the rest of this entry »