Today's the first day of the CSFF blog tour for The Shock of the Night, the latest from award-winning author Patrick W. Carr. In my review for his last novel, I wrote:
... I read this book for one reason: to finally learn who the chosen king of Illustra was. This essential question haunted (with varying degrees of success) the previous books, and it continues to plague all as the final battles of the war rage about the kingdom... Like all great mysteries this one was deceptively simple, hiding the answer in plain sight. I'd encourage him to tackle a whodunit in his next project....
It feels as if Mr. Carr read those words, since this new series, the Darkwater saga, follows a detective as he seeks to sift the truth in a world of supernatural gifts and powers. I'm all for combining these two genres, and found this first foray into his world of a fantastic, immersive experience. I also highly recommend the free prequel novella, By Divine Right. It's a good introduction to the characters and world that the later novel develops, plus a rousing mystery in its own right.
Tomorrow I'll post a full review of The Shock of the Night; Wednesday, the final day of this blog tour, will be devoted to a further exploration of some of the book's themes, including the mystery element and the world's theological landscape, which I found particularly interesting. In the meantime, check out the following other members of the tour for their thoughts.
The Shock of the Night
by Patrick W. Carr
Mystery Fantasy from Bethany House (Nov. 3rd, 2015)
Tour ParticipantsWhen one man is brutally murdered and the priest he works for mortally wounded on the streets of Bunard, Willet Dura is called to investigate. Yet the clues to the crime lead to contradictions and questions without answers. As Willet begins to question the dying priest, the man pulls Willet close and screams in a foreign tongue. Then he dies without another word.
Willet returns to the city, no closer to answers than before, but his senses are skewed. People he touches appear to have a subtle shift, a twist seen at the edge of his vision, and it's as though he can see their deepest thoughts. In a world divided between haves and have-nots, gifted and common, Willet soon learns he's been passed the rarest gift of all: a gift that's not supposed to exist.
Now Willet must pursue the murderer still on the loose in Bunard even as he's pulled into a much more dangerous and epic conflict that threatens not only his city, but his entire world–a conflict that will force him to come to terms with his own tortured past if he wants to survive.
