The Kingston Whig-Standard from Kingston, Ontario, Canada • 71

BOOKS SHORTTAKES CONJURE ME by Jack Curtis Mystery The Black Ice by Michael Connelly Reviewed by Shawn Farrell In the mid-1970s a student group gathers to discuss world issues change the system and experiment with drugs and' sex Tragedy strikes when a group member Lori Cosgrove is killed and the rest are left to shoulder the guilt Years later they are individually summoned by the mysterious magician Zeno who begins methodically to murder them Zeno eventually encounters another former group member Sam Pascoe and in him meets his match We learn that Zeno answers to the evil Wallace Ellwood a lawyer though Ell-wood's motives for being involved with the murders is not evident until much later I was unfamiliar with Curtis's past works among them Parliament and Sons of die Morning but I was particularly impressed with this book The Britishness of some of the language slowed me at first but Curtis's description is remarkably vivid And though the story is initially somewhat disjointed and the circumstances surrounding Lori death arc kept a secret until late in the novel the plot becomes clearer as the talc progresses and the technique serves to keep the reader guessing (Bantam $2450) into Lincoln's eye He fell backwards screaming his heavy seaboots drumming on the deck while his blood encircled his Thus Lady Catherine repulses the advances of a mutineer on the Golden Plover in Beyond the Reef The title refers to a 100-mile reef off the coast of West Africa Alexander Kent a pseudonym of Douglas Reeman a Second World War naval veteran has written many books under his real name but this is one of a lengthy series dealing with the Napoleonic era The continuity ensured by many familiar characters who accompany Richard Bolitho during his battles at sea against the French has likely contributed to wide following amongst enthusiasts of naval affairs of that time Indeed the vivid descriptions of war at sea under sail prompts the reader to make invidious comparisons between the modem officer and the officer of time The former dependent upon an array of electronic equipment is confronted by a variety of missiles from the air over the sea or from under the sea On the other hand the latter sailing in what has been allied a was involved in the management of saves of heavy cannons and the direction of hundreds of men handling sails and rigging of extraordinary complexity In Beyond the Reef Kent transports the reader to the challenges and hardships of the 19th-century navy as we sail for South Africa to suppress the slave trade quell a mutiny and later engage the French in a fierce battle in the West Indies For some older readers this cracking good yam will be reminiscent of the Own Paper Alexander Kent's version of this bygone journal is the BOP with sex (Reed Books Canada $2495) Dark Fantasy Reviewed by Richard Perry like the titles of many mystery stories serves a double meaning In Michael second novel the words refer both to a new dangerously powerful designer drug being smuggled out of Mexico and to that road condition that Canadians know too well: when misty rain freezes the macadam and makes invisible the treacherous path ahead A finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in feature writing Connelly regularly reports on crime and the criminal courts for the Los Angeles Tune He seems to know his territory exceedingly well for The Black Ice reveals an authoritative savvy about street life the argot of villainy the proclivities of the law weapons of choice and victims of fate Connelly has done his research on both sides of the border the last quarter of the book and the most exciting part takes place in Mcxiax Connelly's protagonist is Hieronymus Bosch not a bad name for an escort through the dark entrails of the Los Angeles drug scene Bosch is an LAPD homicide detective with the independent habits of a private investigator and the smart mouth to match Journeying between the Scylla of vengeful gangsters who wish his death and the Charybdis of departmental bureaucrats who demand his conformity this relentless loner sets out to determine who blew away Calexico Moore a Mexican-Amcrican LA police officer on the trail of black ice smugglers The twistings and turnings of the plot (is Moore really dead?) are too complex to summarize here and so intricate that one has the uneasy feeling when reaching the last page that some loose strings must be dangling even if none come to mind All of the subsidiary characters are vividly portrayed (though perhaps the love interest is too pat) and the dialogue is realistic enough to have been transcribed from the next booth in a shabby diner The final scenes in which Bosch teams up with the Drug Enforcement Agency to raid the black ice labfortress has all the cinematic momentum of a Lethal Force flick this is quintessential late 20th century exciting well-crafted American rubbish (Little Brown $1995) Adventure BEYOND THE REEF by Alexander Kent Magic CONJURING by James Randi this startling talc Charismatic and deadly Molochai Twig and Zillah travel across the South searching for adventure and the vital fluid that keeps them alive Jason (aka Nothing) discovers an old note in his adoptive parents' bureau and understands why he cannot relate to the other teenagers at his school Christian manages a tavern located in New Orleans' French Quarter he is of a different generation than Molochai and the rest though he shares their thirst for blood and their gilt of age-lcssncss Ann Bra ns by-Smith is bored with her musician boyfriend and life as a waitress She thirsts for stimulation from the boredom of Missing Mile LOST SOULS by Poppy ZBrite Reviewed by Justin Busch James Randi's success as a debunker of so-called occult phenomena has tended to obscure his renown as a magician Now seldom active he once thrilled audiences live and on radio and television with feats of prestidigitation and escape As The Amazing Randi he stood honorably in the lineage of Houdini and Blackstone For his ninth book Randi has relumed to his first love and written an amiable chatty historical survey of many of the greatest names in the field of what professionals call conjuring and enraptured audiences call magic Randi peruses the acts and advertising of a multitude of wizards from ancient Egypt to contemporary Canada displaying on the way the droll humor and incisive ob- servation that help make his books on occult chicanery so devastating Some tricks never die the earliest description of magic that has come down to us (on Egyptian papyrus) refers to a stunt still performed today On the other hand illusions have grown ever grander over time and Randi describes several of the most spectacular The book is lavishly illustrated many of the pasters arc works of magic in themselves A number are from Randi's own collection Discreetly interspersed throughout the text arc autobiographical reminis- cences demonstrating that Randi's interest and involvement in magic are personal as well as professional (St Martin's Press $3999) The characterization is superb and is the driving force behind this modem vampire classic while the plot is forced to take a secondary role Quite simply characters are introduced exist and live and the reader knows that inevitably one character will cross paths with another just a matter of time But in the world of Lost Souls the characters are important and through Brite's superb storytelling we become bound to them This writer's prose is rich and sophisticated though not preachy or self-absorbed A random flip through provides an example: knew the eagerness of the religious to believe in evil and their lust to crush it To do something tangible in return they spent their lives awaiting Wallace by himself might not be so dangerous but his faith anild be deadly" (Delaarrte $23) Reviewed by Shawn Farrell I recognized Poppy name (one not easily forgotten) from her humble beginnings in the small-press horror magazines of which I am a fan Noting the book's glossy cover I was intrigued to see that she had made the leap to the big time Ms Brite is still in her early twenties yet I was surprised by the wealth of accolades original from Dan Simmons Edward Bryant Kathryn Placck Harlan Ellison a virtual Who of the I realized that what I held in my hands was more than a new writer's first effort So begins the love of a new author work Just when I thought the old vampire myth had been done to death Poppy Brilc manages Reviewed by A Shackleton turned aside and reached up to adjust her piled hair She felt his breath stinking of rum smelt the dirt and sweat of his body as he gripped her waist and stared wildly at the shadow between her breasts then she said must loosen my Deftly she pulled the king comb from her hair and even as it tumbled over her shoulders she raised the armb and drove it 11 ic Yniig-Klujiriunl (lomKUiion Man'll 6.