Rating: 3.75 stars
Artist Peter Brandon is getting ready to have old friends visit for the weekend and is a little irritated that his partner, Jeff Stevens has scheduled a meeting in L. A. about a case at the same time he was hoping to have help with the preparations. As it gets closer for Jeff to leave, Peter starts having feelings of dread, twinges of intuition that have always been right in the past. But Jeff goes anyway promising to be back in the evening. When Jeff doesn’t arrive home as planned and doesn’t answer Peter’s phone calls, Peter knows that something terrible has happened. A vision shows him Jeff, hurt, bound and gagged and Peter jumps into action, determined to rescue Jeff at any cost. And one of the people Peter counts on to help him is none other than the spirit of his dead lover, Phillip.
Peter finds out that Jeff had been pulled into a case involving a Satanic cult whose leader, Lefevre, has followers everywhere and the LA police have no leads on Jeff’s location. As Peter and Jeff’s friends gather round to help in the search, Peter heads out with only Phillip as his guide. When Lefevre finds out about Phillip’s ability to aid Peter from beyond the grave, he plans to acquire the spirit and kill all who stands in his way.
In my opinion, A Self Portrait is really two separate books attached loosely two thirds of the way into the plot. While I enjoyed each separately, I don’t that it worked successfully fused together. The first two thirds of the book happens when Peter falls unconscious after hearing the news of Jeff’s disappearance. During this state, he remembers his love affair with Phillip from beginning at age 15 to the attack that killed Phillip and severely injured Peter to the point he remained in a coma for 3 years. I loved their story although Phillip’s sheer perfection got on my nerves a bit. While I can see the memory of a deceased loved one become burnished over time so that their imperfections vanish, I don’t think that was the case here. I just wish Bowie had Phillip gnaw on a cuticle or two, something to humanize Phillip more for the reader. Peter is far more the believable human being here, with his flaws and imperfections front and center, I certainly liked Peter more. And I was genuinely upset when the couple was attacked and devastated when Peter woke alone in the hospital. That said, I also saw the attack coming, much like watching one of those college kids go down into the basement in Scary Movie.
The remaining third of the book deals with Peter, his visions, and his attempts to locate Jeff before they are all killed in a satanic ritual. Again, Bowie built the reader’s apprehension and suspense bit by bit, so much so that in parts I was on the edge of my chair reading. Very skillfully executed indeed. The one thing that threw me off balance was Lefevre turning out to have real powers as opposed to being just another bogus whackjob with pretensions to evil. J.P. Bowie never built a case for that happening so it didn’t seam to fit in with the rest of the story. I did like the idea of Phillip’s spirit assisting Peter but wish we had a more solid base for all the actions of the last act, especially when the psychic powers become all important to the plot and its resolution. As I said I think that there are two successful books here, I just am not sure that A Self Portrait contains one. I liked the book (with reservations), and I like the author. If you find my quibbles palatable, then I recommend this book to you.
Cover. This is not the cover on my book. The cover artist for that particular cover is Deana Jamroz. But both covers have the same elements and work for the story
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 