Barbara Nickless

Play of Shadows by Barbara Nickless
Dr. Evan Wilding #3

A’maze’ing, immersive, interesting, and intellectually stimulating ~ Great addition to the series!

What I liked: all of it really but specifically…
* Evan Wilding: professor at the University of Chicago in semiotics, linguistics, and paleography; consultant to police, height challenged – refers to himself as a dwarf, brilliant, older brother to River, likes animals, tenacious, puzzle solver, intriguing
* River Wilding: archaeologist, explorer, possibly a spy, a year younger than Evan, one and a half feet taller than his brother, always on the move, supportive, capable, leaps into the fray, a doer, interesting and intriguing, rather taken with Evan’s assistant Diana, in town to help Evan
* Diana: Evan’s assistant, specialized in another area of ancient civilizations and languages, ax thrower, athlete, like a sister to Evan, rather taken with River
* Addison “Addie” Bissett: homicide detective, Evan’s friend, works with Evan on some cases, strong, determined, caring, dedicated, is at a crossroads in her life with decisions to make
* Detective McBrady: Addie’s work partner and a father figure at times, protective, wise, grounded
* Evan’s animals: Perro the Welsh Corgi that was once Diana’s and Ginny the hawk that Evan flies in the park
* The brothers together, their comradery, the way they communicate and care for one another, the great team they make when working together
* The plot, pacing, setting, and writing with twists, turns, and surprises – really drew me in and made me care
* The mysteries and how they were resolved through police procedure and the unlocking of clues based in ancient symbols
* That there was hope at the end a future book to look forward to

What I didn’t like:
* Who and what I was meant not to like
* Thinking about how twisted some people are and how they impact those around them – for good or for evil

Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Would I read more in this series? Definitely!

Thank you to Thomas & Mercer for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars… (plus d'informations)

I was looking for a books about trains to get in touch with old memories of bulky trains moving around, but instead I got a book about war, trauma and war-trauma. I'm conflicted now. Forget about the trains, this book is like a heated stone. You look at it and well, it looks ok, nothing betrays it stored energy at the first glance for a few dozen pages but then... you start notice those air heat waves, you get this nagging feeling of danger, of something you know will happen but still not sure what and how.

You just need to touch this hot stone to understand. Nothing in our normal life can prepare us for anything outside this life - war even less so. I can describe all the looks and dangers and statistics and processes involved in simple gesture of touching heated stone by bare hand yet... nothing will make it real but a real touch.

What is that morbid curiosity that makes everyone at some point touch a boiling pot? Live wire? Dead animal? Or a human? There is a ladder in there that goes step by step from experiences we can survive to the experiences we can not. At least not as we are. It does rise a question of validity of such experiences transformation - at what point you are able to accept a tale and at what point you do need to reenact it to feel your experiences validated?

This book in the calm and deceptively normal tone tell a tale that may be not the most original one, but one that can open a door. A simple door to something we only imagine but at the same time did happen in some way and at some point in the real world.

One interesting thing about this book though is how it's written in a way that disallow my usual sentence skipping reading style. I found out that for this particular book its short and concise sentences always contain action, weight and sense. Those sentences are not like some usual rope that reader will be unraveling at own leisure and speed but more like a velcro. Sentences in this book hook each other and collectively always create stronger paragraphs than I usually find in books. Whole text is simultaneously very polished and very purposeful. Even if it does indeed feel a very... well, level-headed, if not outright detached on par with crime report. Very strange combination, I don't think I ever read anything like that.… (plus d'informations)

Barbara Nickless certainly knows how to write compelling thrillers with strong main characters. Former Marine and railway cop Sydney Rose Parnell suffers from PTSD. In Iraq, she served in Mortuary Affairs, the detail that prepared soldiers killed in action to be returned to their families in the U.S. In her own words, "We were the Marines the other Marines avoided. The pariahs, the bad-luck charms. The ones no one wanted to risk being near." Combine that with her other combat experiences and it's no wonder that she has PTSD. At least, now in her job as a railway cop, she has her former war dog, Clyde, at her side to help her out.

Ambush centers on the promise Sydney made to a young Iraqi boy and the lengths to which she will go to fulfill that promise. The narrow escapes she has from the killer known as Alpha show how determined he is to keep his secrets, but they also show that Sydney refuses to quit. Her guilt and the promise she made to the Iraqi boy, Malik, prove that nothing will stop her in her quest to ensure a good life for the boy-- even if it means getting to the bottom of why Alpha will go to any lengths to cover his tracks.

Sydney Parnell is a strong, nuanced character that readers can really sink their teeth into, and her investigations can really keep hearts racing. I know I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.… (plus d'informations)