Review of Gregori’s Ghost by Sarah Black

Rating: 5 stars

Dr. Steven Russell’s grandfather, Charlie, is dying. And in his pain, Charlie keeps calling out two mens names, that of Gregori and Alexi. When Steven asks who those men are Charlie begins to tell his grandson a story, one he has never heard before, that of Charlie’s time in the Army in WWII. Charlie tells Steven that when he meet a Ukrainian war photographer, his live divided into two parts, that of “before Gregori and after Gregori”. Charlie tells Steven a horrific story of a mass execution that Gregori photographed and asks Steven to bring Gregori’s old camera to him in the hospital. Charlie also gets Steven to promise to find Alexi, Gregori’s grandson and make sure he is safe. But when Steven returns to the hospital with the camera, his grandfather has already died and Steven has a promise to keep.

But there is so much more going on than just a promise. When Steven pulled out the camera from its storage place, he noticed its mint condition and looked into the lens. To his utter astonishment, he sees exactly what Gregori saw that day in the Katyn Forest when over 23,000 people were slaughtered and dumped in a mass burial to be hidden. Steven can smell the oder of the guns and feel the cold creep into his bones. Looking into the camera, he is there with Gregori as it happens. And then Gregory and Charlie start to speak to him and tell Steven that he has to help Alexi right the wrongs and save the spirits of the two old men.

All his life, Steven has lead a self indulgent, golden life. Now to honor his promise to Charlie, he must leave it all behind to go to the Ukraine to find Alexi Temchanko a Ukrainian journalist investigating the old crime. While they have never met, they have talked on the phone, and the attraction Steven feels for the journalist is unsettling as is the fact that Gregori is still speaking to him, telling him that time is running out and Alexi is in danger. There are people all around them trying to stop the truth from coming out. Will Steven get to Alexi in time to save him and honor his promise to the ghosts of two men depending upon him as well?

Gregori’s Ghost is a wonder of a story on so many levels. We have an historical element based on fact, that of Katyn massacre, a mass execution of Polish citizens in 1940. Then around this monstrous crime Black builds a tale of family, obligation, honor and love. Sarah Black is an expert on old men, as crazy as that sounds. She knows how they sound and how they move and her characters resonate with authenticity of age and knowledge, how I loved Gregori and Charlie. But Steven Russell is something of a new character for her. He is a “golden boy”, a neurologist who is emotionally removed from everyone around him with the exception of his grandfather, who sees the true Steven. He is a bit of a cad, taking from lovers and never giving of himself. But Black takes this unlovable character and makes him grow and discard his shallow lifestyle to carry out his grandfather’s wishes. But there is no personality transplant but a realistic difficult change that Steven has to undergo. It is just so very well done that I came to like Steven by the end of the story. But Gregori’s Ghost is peopled with characters you will come to love and entrust with your affections, including Gregori and Charlie, the two entwined men who start it all.

On top of her characterizations, Sarah Black gives us a mystical element, that of the ghosts or spirits of Gregori and Charlie who continue to talk or berate Steven into action. The author gives her ghosts as many layers as her living persons, right down to their sexuality as well. Gregori finds himself tempted by the gorgeous Steven and gives in to their mutual sexual needs in several stirring scenes. How you feel about the supernatural might dictate what you feel about this part of the book, but I ask you to just go with it because the end is worth it all.

But most impressive is that Gregori’s Ghost is so different in that her traditional love of the land is missing here. Unlike all her other books where the characters are as wedded to the land as they are to each other, here the landscape is reduced to a minor supporting role. Instead of the land being the characters foundation, it is each other that provides the emotional and mental support they need to go forward. With the exception of Steven, Alexi, Gregori, and Charlie are men who by their nature and the circumstances they find themselves in, are men pared down to their core. In pain, dying, they still act with honor and determination, something Steven learns along the way. Like I said , a remarkable book. Now this great book is free at All Romance Books. Find it here and download it for free. Run, don’t walk to the nearest computer and get it. I hope you will love it as much as I do. And while you are there, pick up some other Sarah Black books, starting with Marathon Cowboys. You will want them all.

Author Spotlight: Sarah Black

The Legend of the Apache Kid by Sarah Black , review here

Marathon Cowboys by Sarah Black, review here

Review: Infected Lesser Evils #6 by Andrea Speed

Rating: 4.75 stars

“In a world where a werecat virus has changed society, Roan McKichan, a born infected and ex-cop, works as a private detective trying to solve crimes involving other infecteds.”

When Roan gets a call from the police about a shifted Infected at Club Damage, that there are injured people, and the cat cornered in the club bathroom, he heads out to investigate and take down the cat. But almost immediately Roan realizes there is a larger problem than just an infected cat on the loose. The cat is dying and smells off, it has almost a chemical aroma to it. Then another cat shifts out of schedule and dies and then another. The autopsy reveals a chemical in their bloodstream, a new drug that forces the Infected people to shift early and die. Roan and the police force realize that someone has targeted all Infected’s and it’s up to Roan to find that person before they have a wave of cat deaths throughout the city.

Holden is also having a very bad day. He is beaten up by one of his john’s and needs Roan’s help to get back to his condo. But his john is not finished with him yet and an already anguished Roan takes on the role of an avenger something that is happening in greater frequency. Because the infected population is not only being targeted by a drug pusher, a serial killer is hunting them down as well. As Roan tries to find the supplier of the poisoned drugs and track the killer with Holden’s help, he also has to deal with increasing migraines and the fact that the lion just might be taking over. It’s almost enough to make Roan want to die if the virus would let him.

Lesser Evils is the sixth book in the Infected series that remains one of my all time favorites. This is quite simply a mesmerizing saga at every level starting with the central premise of an out of control virus. The virus is spreading throughout the human population with the disastrous effect of changing those infected into beings no longer completely human before killing them. The origin of the virus is unknown, although the speculations include the most favored “secret government agency trying to build a super soldier” one. But it could also include a feline virus not unlike the avian or swine bug run amuck. I love the idea of a nebulous background for the virus although it remains to be seen if the author leaves it this way or has something totally different planned for us and Roan. Trust me, it would be just like Andrea Speed to have some utterly confounding explanation just lying in wait for us in future books.

The Infected series also includes some of my favorite characters, again starting with the heart of the series, Roan McKitchen. He is an Infected child, born of an Infected mother instead of someone infected after birth. Roan is also the only known child to not only survive but thrive with the virus inside of him. But thriving physically is not the same as surviving emotionally or mentally and Roan continues to battle both his emotions and mental state as the virus mutates within him. And it is this constantly changing state that Roan finds himself in that speaks to so many fundamental questions within us. What does it mean to be human? Is who we are internally, in our mind and soul tied to who we are physically? If who you are physically is no longer within the realm of human specifications, does that outsider status remove you from the human condition and people all around you to the extent you can’t relate to them any more? Question after important question is brought up but the answers are constantly evolving as is Roan. I love the high level of complexity here and the fact that with each book, who and what Roan is becoming more bewildering and convoluted as well.

Just as there are no “reasonably” simple human beings, you won’t find them within these pages either. This includes Holden Fox, another favorite. Holden started out as a high priced hooker but now seems to be evolving into Roan’s investigative partner and fellow vigilante when necessary. He is not just familiar with the dark underbelly of society, but is a top denizen there. His outlook is a needed contrast to Dylan, Roan’s artist husband and part time bartender. Dylan, another beautifully layered portrait, loves Roan and is trying to accept the changes he sees in him. Dylan also is in the unpleasant role of being the one man who can never quite measure up to Roan’s true love, Paris Lehane and now must live with a ghost always present in their relationship. And then there are all the characters that circle around Roan, from the hockey players (Grey, Scott, Tank…all memorable) to Seb and Drop Kick, the police officers Roan works with. There is no such thing as a cardboard character in a Andrea Speed novel.

Lesser Evils tackles several problems at once, much the same as the other stories. One strand that is running through the last few books is that there seems to be a mysterious organization, perhaps one with white supremacists, that is targeting Infecteds, trying to wipe them out by various methods, in this case by poisoning a favored club drug. Only those infected by the virus die and die horribly. So Roan, the police, FBI and others are trying to track the source of the drug to its manufacturer in a race that also includes a antidote as more and more die on the streets. In addition, someone is hunting the Infecteds like big game and the police with a couple of exceptions don’t seem to be taking this as seriously as they would if the serial killer was hunting “people”. This infuriates Roan as he starts to feel like he must take the “savior” role he has always avoided.

As Andrea Speed pulls all these threads together, she also weaves Roan’s torment over his changing physical and mental state into the pattern as well. The lion inside is coming out more and more and Roan is struggling with his emotions and temper to the point he thinks Dylan is in danger. We feel his anger, the level of his depression and even his rage at those who remain unconcerned and removed from the plight of the Infected. The author forces us to think about what makes us who we are as Roan loses the certainly we take for granted. The virus also seems to be protecting him in startling ways even as it is morphing him into something the world has never seen before. And with increasing dread, we “hear” as the government starts to talk about making Infecteds register themselves, which sounds like a precursor to concentration camps, for their own good of course. As I stated, so many elements are in play here, and the future for all is becoming increasingly muddied. Especially for Roan, our most reluctant of heroes but for which race?

For even as Dylan reminds Roan that he is still human, and we know he is not, and Holden abjures Roan to renounce the human race and accept his non human status, Roan in his anguished, drugged state tries to find a median ground that probably does not exist. And we are there with him for every angst ridden step he takes in the journey before him and the rest of the world. And that is the cherry on top. The tantalizing glimpses that Speed allows us to see along Roan’s path. It’s these small windows that open up into a possible future for Roan and the other Infecteds that give me shivers and make me undeniably one of her biggest fans even when she leaves me and all the other readers hanging as she does here in Lesser Evils. Yes, even as we find out the new mutations the virus has caused in Roan, it also has a debilitating effect on him that turns into a cliffhanger at the end. *Head desk*. Roan pulls out all the deepest emotions in the reader because he is so well crafted, that he becomes real to us which makes the cliffhanger at the end so frustrating because we need to know what happens next. Sigh.

As I have commented on how much I dislike cliffhangers in other books, so that is the reason my head pounded when I found it here. So as we wait for Dreamspinner Press to bring out the next in the series and for this situation with Roan in the hospital to be resolved, I will placate myself by going back to the beginning and starting to read the series all over again, looking for new clues I might have missed, and uncovering elements the author may have hidden away. So even with the dreaded cliffhanger in place, grab this one up. Or if you are new to the series, go back to the beginning and become acquainted with one of the most complex and enthralling characters to cross a page.

Andrea Speed also compiles a playlist for each book. They can be found at her website In Absentia. Here are the books in the order they were written and should be read to understand the characters and the saga:

Lesser Evils

Cover: Cover by Anne Cain is just magnificent. The cover art is available for download as screensavers at Andrea Speed’s website.

Review of Splintered Lies (In The Shadow of the Wolf #3) by Diane Adams and RJ Scott

Rating: 4 stars

When cop Joe Christie’s shifter wife and unborn child died, a part of him died with them. Since their deaths, he has just been going through the motions of life, running on his own in wolf form and avoiding all former friends and partners, including Nick. That would be Nickolas Alexander, Joe’s former best friend and lover before his marriage to Mara. Once Joe married Mara, Nick stepped back from their lives and away from Joe. But Nick has continued to love Joe all through his marriage to a woman that he grew to like as well. And when Mara and their unborn child was killed, Nick stood by Joe as the shattered man tried to cope with their loss and failed.

One piece of information about the ongoing investigation into criminal acts against the shifter population shocks Nick to the core and then galvanizes Joe into action. Mara and Joe’s unborn child were the recipients of an illegal drug and unknowingly part of a criminal experiment on female wolf shifters and their babies. They were killed to get rid of evidence of the experiments not in a car accident as Joe and the others had been told. Only two others of their group know the truth and when Nick tells Joe how Mara really died, Joe explodes in rage, determined to find and kill the people responsible.

With Rob, Sam, Doug, and Jamie to help, Nick and Joe set out to find the truth behind the torture, kidnapping and deaths of the shifters. Nick tries to keep his love for Joe quiet but working next to him in the investigation is unbelievably hard. And Joe is also finding that the love and lust he thought he had buried when he married Mara is coming back in full force. Will his guilt and love for his dead wife make any future with Nick impossible? And will the conspiracy to kill wolf shifters mean their deaths as well.

Splintered Lies (In The Shadow of the Wolf #3) completes the investigation into a wolf shifter conspiracy that started with Shattered Secrets (In The Shadow of the Wolf #1) and continued in Broken Memories (In The Shadow of the Wolf #2). All the couples from the first two stories are back as well as the auxiliary characters who are now the main characters here, Joe and Nick. There is a conspiracy aimed at the destruction of wolf shifters. Shifters have been captured, kidnapped and tortured, experimented on and then killed but the investigations into each case has proven that the leadership behind the criminal acts goes higher than anyone had anticipated, reaching into the top levels of the government itself. Authors Adams and Scott more than accomplish their goals in giving the reader a horrifying mystery to solve as each new angle or case makes the conspiracy behind it even more terrifying in scope. Before we had abused wolves who can’t or won’t shift back, cases of multiple rapes and prostituted shifters, now it is revealed that pregnant wolf shifters and their fetuses have been the subject of gruesome experiments. And when those experiments have failed, the subjects have been deposed of, including Mara and their unborn child. The subject matter alone here raises the horror factor considerably and thankfully most of the experimentation has been left to the reader’s imagination. Again, this is such a huge element of the series and it is very well crafted. Splintered Lies brings the hunt for the people behind the atrocities to a conclusion that is 99 percent satisfying as not all of those who participated are counted for at the end. Are they setting us up for another book? It would seem so.

More problematic are the characters of Joe Christie and Nick Anderson. Joe is lost in his grief over the death’s of Mara and their child. And all the emotions he is going through seemed grounded in reality. You can feel how shattered he is, how his grief has immobilized him in his loss. But when it comes to the backstory of his and Nick’s earlier relationship, you want to know what was the pivotal point that made Joe choose Mara over his very real love for Nick. Over and over Joe reveals how guilty he felt over dumping Nick for Mara and that Nick still appeared in his dreams but the reader never understands why Joe felt the need to make the choice he did and that serves as a huge disconnect between the reader and this character. How can the reader mourn the loss of Joe and Nick’s relationship is it never feels completely real to begin with? Then there is Nick who in his love for Joe steps back and away from the man he loves. He says he understood Joe, but again, we never feel either his passion for Joe or the bargain he made with himself. Nick just comes across as way too passive with regard to his past with Joe. Ultimately, while the confused sexual tension between the men had a certain gravity to it, the rest of it felt flimsy in its construction. So while I liked the characters I never bought into a loving connection between them and the story suffered from it.

An intriguing angle I wish had been more throughly explored was the idea of shifter assimilation versus shifter integration into human society. Sam posed that part of Joe’s behavioral problems was that he was trying to act “human”, from his method of dealing with his grief to crowded human conditions. I loved this concept. It came about very late in the book and has so many great elements to it, so many places you could go with it that I wish it had been the focus of the story or maybe the central idea behind its own series. Again I felt like it was given short shrift but maybe that’s on purpose. I certainly hope so because an exploration of what it means to be a wolf shifter in a human society could certainly benefit from another great perspective or even two.

So if you love shifters, add this series to books that you should read. I adored two out of the three couples but the rest of the book has so many good elements that I don’t think it should be missed either.

Here are the In The Shadow of the Wolf books in the order they should be read in order to understand the long reaching plot and characters:

Shattered Secrets #1

Broken Memories #2

Splintered Lies #3

Another splendid series cover by Reese Dante

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