Customer Reviews

Ashes of Aries

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The suspense never stops in this mystery starring psychic private investigator Dr. Elizabeth Chase. With the clock ticking, Elizabeth must use all of her detecting skills and psychic gifts to find a kidnapped child and an arsonist willing to sacrifice lives, homes, and countryside to wreak revenge. An engaging protagonist, an atmospheric setting, compelling characters, and a taut mystery combine to make this a great read. Although the fifth book in the series, it nonetheless stands alone as a page turning thriller.

Ashes of Aries is a paranormal mystery thriller that will not disappoint!

Lawrence's writing in this, her fifth novel in the Elizabeth Chase mystery series, is literally as smooth as butter. She presents the story in such a manner that it captivates you and you're not aware of any stylistic maneuvers, a sure sign of a pro at work!

Elizabeth Chase continues her growth at all levels of life: emotional, spiritual, psychological, and physical.

The characters are vivid and true to life, once again with that dead-on-target dialogue for which Martha Lawrence has got to become famous! (After all, none other than authorial luminary Sue Grafton said to reserve a spot for Lawrence on the best seller list!)

I took "Ashes" with me to read while I waited on a brake job. This story had me so addicted that after I left the garage I kept it beside me on the front seat, and when traffic was backed up and I had to wait at red lights I would read! I got home and hurriedly finished the book, and I have to say it's even stronger than her previous efforts, a thoroughly pleasing read and a wonderful escape!

Once again Lawrence handles the tricky psychic angle with honesty and without dogma and "too pat" answers. (Being a professional psychic myself, I'm somewhat of an authority on that subject!)

I can't recommend "Ashes" highly enough, and I can't wait for the sixth in the series!!

Excelsior, my friend!

John.

I completely enjoyed this series so far but, although this one is very readable, it never got off the ground for me. I would have preferred more about the kidnapping and much less about the fires. Kind of a lazy effort, I thought, particularly the ending which had me shaking my head in disappointment. Hope the next one is better.

Psychic investigator and private eye Elizabeth Chase sets out to find a kidnapped four-year-old boy and nearly loses her own life in a deadly arson wildfire that sweeps through the San Diego neighborhood where the boy's parents - and Chase's own parents - live.

The author, a psychic herself, paints a convincing, if sometimes frustrating, picture of the psychic's skills - chancy, sometimes cryptic and hardly ever available when you need it. Lawrence tells a crisp, fast-paced story, free of New Age philosophizing. Chase is a down-to-earth investigator who relies at least as much on her interviewing and research skills as on less tangible abilities.

The child, Matthew Fielding, is the son of a telecommunications mogul. There's money, of course, and business tensions, a relative who desperately wanted a child, some angry Eco-terrorists, a gung-ho sheriff's deputy who might be a firebug. Chase doesn't hesitate to seek help from the experts - police, arson investigators, even an obnoxious reporter - and her case proceeds along comfortably conventional lines with helpful boosts from energy auras, telepathic advice and fragmentary visions.

There are a few cliched characters (the brilliant and feisty female arson investigator, for one) but Chase is appealing and her talents believable. Fire ratchets up the suspense and the climax pulls out all the stops.

Once you start reading one of Martha's books you will not be able to put it down. She is one of the most engaging mystery writer I have read in a very long time. I own all 5 of her books and am looking forward to the next one. She writes about places she knows and you almost feel like you are there with her. She makes Elizabeth Chase seem like someone you would trust if you ever needed a P.I. Now she needs a new romance in her life. She has the wit and charm of a warm, loving woman while also being very self reliant.

As usual, Martha Lawrence has written a winner! Her main character, (Elizabeth Chase), is so strong yet kind....deeply human and vulnerable, that you can't help but love her from the first few pages on. You follow her through her investigation, admiring her abilities in some situations and fearing for her in others. Martha's attention to detail makes you feel like you're there, yet her descriptions are accurate, pointed, and never long and boring. This book kept my undivided attention from cover to cover....I had a hard time putting it down! Great job Martha!!

After eagerly awaiting the 5th in the series of psychic P.I. Elizabeth Chase I was not disappointed. Elizabeth is called in on the case of a missing four year old child. Soon a wildfire breaks out in the community where the boy and his family live and also Elizabeth's parents. It becomes a race against time to find the boy who Elizabeth feels is still alive and to find out who is setting the wild fires. Elizabeth must call on her psychic abilities and her detecting skills to get to the boy, and a killer before he strikes again. Intriguing from beginning to end I eagerly await the 6th in the series from Ms. Lawrence.

Private detective Elizabeth Chase still mourns the loss of a loved one while rebuilding her life. She takes on more cases and studies the shamanistic arts with Tecume Indian Sequoia. In addition to being a private detective, she is also a psychic. She has become so well known in solving police cases, the San Diego County sheriff's department hires her to assist in their investigation of the kidnapping of Matthew Fielding, the four-year-old son of multi-millionaire.

Shortly after she interviews the parents of the missing boy, a wildfire near their estate breaks out, burning their home and killing both of them. Further inquiries prove that the fire was deliberately set. Shortly after that incident, another arson occurs, burning down an apartment building and part of Fielding's company proving that whoever took the child and set the fire has a powerful grudge against the family. Throughout their time of horror, Elizabeth's sixth sense insists that Mathew is still alive and she feels that she owes it to his dead parents to find him no matter what the dangers.

After reading ASHES OF ARIES, only the most hardened skeptic will refute the existence of psychic powers in select individuals. The heroine accepts them in much the same way she accepts the color of her hair and eyes. Though she has these powers, Elizabeth predominately uses ordinary investigative skills because they are more reliable and steady then her sixth sense. The story line is totally absorbing, the plot is fast paced and action-packed while the characters, many of whom have appeared in other works, add dimension to a very deep human drama.

Harriet Klausner

This was my first Elizabeth Chase PI book. Kidnapping of 4-yr old child from wealthy community plus arson (out of control fires that destroyed communities and took lives) entertwined. Since this is fiction, I would like to have had a little more psychic adventure in the book. Overall, the book was very entertaining and was one of the few that I've read in the last year that I didn't turn to the back to see if the end justified reading the entire book. Martha's characters are on the whole well developed and believable. There was one glaring "technical" error that was well into the book. Was surprised that it got past both the author and publisher. I will make an effort to read more of this series.

Elizabeth Chase, PI and psychic, has worked missing-persons cases before, so it doesn't surprise her when the San Diego PD calls on her to assist in finding a missing four-year-old boy. Matthew Fielding is the son of a technology mogul and vanished out of his own back yard; there's been no ransom note, yet Elizabeth no sooner visits his home than she senses strongly that he's still alive. Barely hours later, that section of San Diego's suburbia goes up in a holocaust of a brushfire, threatening Elizabeth's parents' home, destroying the Fieldings' utterly, and killing them in their car as they attempt to flee. Elizabeth's powers enable her to "see" an explosion that served as the fire's starting point, and investigators confirm that the propane tank was touched off with a short-term fuse. Now it's not only kidnap but arson and murder that Elizabeth must solve--and she has no lack of suspects: a firefighter who was seen in the area (sometimes, she knows, firefighters do start fires in order to make themselves look heroic while fighting them), Fielding's second-in-command (is there a power play under way?), his childless sister (could she have stolen the boy and then murdered the parents so she could keep him?), an environmental activist, a pushy TV news reporter who just happens to be covering both the kidnap and the fire (could he be angling to improve his career?). The one thing she's sure of is that there's a lot of hate behind it all. Then another fire breaks out. Whoever's responsible has to be stopped before more people die or lose their homes--and before it's too late to save a helpless child. With the help of her buddy Thomasina, her shamanic instructor Sequoia, her parents, and a new character, arson investigator Carolyn Arnold, Elizabeth struggles to make sense of the vibes and visions that come her way.

Lawrence is herself psychic and an inhabitant of the San Diego area, and definitely writes what she knows. Her pictures of wildfires and the horrors they bring are shattering and not for the tender of stomach, and her exposition, through Elizabeth, of what "real" psychic power is all about is clear and convincing: even if you start out as a skeptic, you may (like TV reporter Randy Twain) find yourself a convert by the end of the story. Unfortunately this fifth volume in the series was published in 2001 and no further sequels seem to be in sight; even the author's website gives no hint that she's working on anything new. So if you enjoy convoluted plots, a strong and sympathetic yet human female lead, and a touch of the weird, you'd better enjoy the ones you can get, including this; like Lawrence Alexander, the author of The Big Stick (A Theodore Roosevelt Mystery) and its sequels, Martha C. Lawrence at least goes out on a strong note.