Nocturnal Book Reviews

3.5/5
review request from the author
James R.Tuck always delivers high octane explosive action a bit like Bruce Willis in his Die Hard movies, and it's very entertaining to read about his fights and shoot-outs, however, this is a second book in the series, and I'm still struggling with his writing style.

I've noticed that with the book#1 - repetition, repetition, repetition. James is falling into this trap that Jennifer Estep struggles to free herself from. He keeps reiterating what happened to Deacon before. Yes, we do remember that his family was killed in a brutal manner, yes we do know that angel gave him a blood transfusion, that he loves his car and his big boy guns... but Gods, can we limit it to once maybe twice per book?

There is less repetition in book#2, so I can see the progress, and I would not have minded if his personal tragedy was coming back to him in flashbacks like PTSD. That would have been natural, so we'll see how it goes with later books.

I like Deacon. He is colourful, fleshed-out manly man. He knows he is bigger and meaner than most and he treats his woman very gently and tries to prevent her doing silly stuff like going and getting into a fight with monsters, because what normal human being with a healthy self-preservation instinct would want to kill themselves that way, right? So all his "baby, do what I say" in a fight or flight situations are great and realistic.

There are quite a few crazy scenes which made me sick to my stomach with worry and tension - first fight with lycantropes, Deacon's memory of looking for a missing girl, last showdown... James is masterful with his fight sequences, he is truly good at it, and sick bastards he is fighting with will give Anita Blake a run for her money.

That's why I root for the author to polish his writing style. Less repetion and more character development, especially secondary characters, please. More humor, which was present in book#1 but is absent in book#2.

This series has great potential and almost comic book-like characters, it will be perfect for fans of earlier Anita Blake and J.F.Lewis.