Customer Reviews

Dead Soul (Doss, James D)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I've been reading Doss's "Shaman" series since it first appeared in paperback, and it just keeps getting better and better. "Dead Soul" is the best of the series. As a stand-alone work, it is excellent.

I love the joking, sly, tongue-in-cheek diaglogs Charlie Moon has with the other characters. I can see myself carrying one a similar one with him, since I have do have dialogs like that often. I love Doss's unexpected (and non-PC) observations of life - the human carnivores eating the animal cracker herbivores; the poisonous look of junk food, followed by how good it tastes; how close we here in the Middle World actually are to the those other worlds, above and below and just other.

But especially, I love how Doss can get inside a person's head, to examine how faith, hope and belief continue to call to us, no matter how grounded we think we are in this, the workaday Middle World -- and that hearts that truly believe are the same, no matter how different the outer trappings of their belief systems may appear.

And all this with wonderful descriptions of the land of the Southern Utes -- both is this world and the other -- and with a murder mystery that, like one of Charlie Moon's dialogs, talks to us on one level, but leads us along to something completely different.

I will remember the feeling of this book long after I have forgotten the details of the mystery.

The newest James Doss novel is a very satisfying read. Having read all 8 novels this is the best by far. The first novels featured Scott Paris more than they did Charley Moon. The change to featuring Charlie Moon and the interplay with his aunt Daisy has made the novels more interesting. I enjoy the interplay between Aunt Daisy and Charlie as he tries to live the "modern" Ute way and she walks in the "old" Ute way. Although this novel still maintains the interplay between Aunt Daisy and Charlie, there is a definite movement on Charlie's part to being affected by the ghosts of the past. His night dreams seem to show evidence that the blood of a "Shamaan" runs in his veins. Many of the book jackets have stated that Doss does for the Utes what Tony Hillerman does for the Navajo. This is the first time that I truly believe that this is the case. The combination of Native American mysticism and modern day Ute civilization makes this novel an extremely satisfying read. It is also nice to see Charlie have a bit of romance. I hope the Senator's assistant is a continuing character. I can't wait for the next James Doss novel.

I have been a fan of James Doss' work through many many of his works. Dead Soul is no exception to his writing skill and his ability to spin a truly fascinating tale. BUT.. whichever department of Minotaur/Macmillan was responsible for scanning and proofing the scanned copy dropped the ball badly. There was no chapter --among the 40+--that was not without egregious typos. Sometimes there were multiple typos per page. It is obvious that this book was scanned and dumped on the market without even an attempt at proofreading. At first the typos were just there, then they were an irritant, finally they were a total distraction. This was a fine book totally ruined by a slavish belief that optical scanning of a manuscript gives a perfect copy. And it points up the laziness and carelessness of the publishing company who let it find its way to the Kindle market. A 7.99 rip off of a book and an author, both of which deserved much better.

Much I as enjoy James Doss and find this particular book a good read, my pleasure in the Kindle version is marred by the vast number of typos it contains. Did somebody use the wrong program to convert the text? The word "the" often appears as "die". A double l is represented by a capital U which looks most bizarre when in the middle of a word. Confusing translations randomly appear, blocking one's understanding of the meaning of a sentence. The name of the place by Daisy Perika's modest trailer home is given as Carton de Espiritu instead of the familiar Canyon de Espiritu. When conversations are conducted as a series of one liners, all remarks are jumbled into one paragraph with only the side-by-side quote marks to end one and begin the next -- making it difficult to keep up with who says what.

This Kindle book should be free of charge until somebody fixes all the distracting typos unfairly put into James Doss's perfectly good text.

[I'm reading this on an iPad using the Amazon Kindle app.]

OH MY! Hundreds of errors in the Kindle edition so that it makes reading very difficult. Then I look and see that the Kindle edition cost MORE that the paper back. I love the Kindle and I love books on the Kindle, I just hope that no new Kindle owners read this one first. It will make them want to pitch the Kindle in the trash. Please no more like this!

Senator Patch Davidson, senior member of the Judiciary Committee, waits for his chauffeur Billy Smoke, a member of the Southern Ute tribe of Southern Colorado, to pick him up. However, someone assaults him hitting the Senator in the head and repeatedly in the knees. When Patch wakes up in the hospital, he realizes that he is a paraplegic and Billy is dead. Tribal Chairman Oscar Sweetwater asks Columbine ranch owner Charlie Moon, a part time investigator for the tribe, to make inquiries into the deadly incident.

Charlie concludes that no one had a valid reason to kill Billy and lets the matter drop. Four months later, Oscar asks Charlie to meet him at the Senator's Boxcar Ranch because someone is leaking sensitive material to a foreign country. Patch wants to find out who it is and how it's being done. Charlie figures out that there were two men who attacked the Senator and killed Billy and the leak started with them. As Charlie comes closer to identifying the assault duo, he also realizes that the person committing treason will attack him if he knew how close the sleuth has come to uncovering the truth.

James D. Doss' protagonist is not a typical private eye as he is a former policeman content to run his ranch; Charlie Moon does not rely on brute strength to get the job done. In his own way the hero is a genius who outthinks his opponent while keeping a sense of humor. DEAD SOUL is a very entertaining thought-provoking novel that grabs and keeps reader attention.

Harriet Klausner

I hadn't been keeping up with the series for a while, but when I read Dead Soul I decided to return to the Charlie Moon books. Not only is this mystery dotted with gems of humor that made me laugh out loud, the ending is so unexpected that I was pleased by my total surprise. Doss is marvelous in his depiction of Charlie Moon's point of view, one full of earthy experience, mischief, wanting, and testosterone. Plus, the setting and vehicles are also contributing characters. My only nitpick is that I want to see more of Scott Paris.

i really like James D Doss, and Dead Soul is no exception. yes, the premise is a little contrived: from a red-headed girl who needs to talk to Charlie Moon, a Senator who has a problem that only Charlie can solve, investigating the murder of a tribal member, a motorcycle gang out to do Charlie in, and a possible new love. it all sounds ridiculous written here, but it works. it's not Shakespeare, but it's not supposed to be. try it; you'll like it.

Both my husband and I love Charlie Moon series. I think he has read every one. Very well written and no foul language.

I started at the beginning of this series quite by accident and have read them all through Dead Souls so far. James Doss always does a fine job of combining a good story with interesting characters and a fine sense of place through outstanding dialogue and wonderful descriptive words that cause me to visualize in my mind the place and people in his stories.

That being said, sometimes I feel like the Native American mysticism a bit overwhelming or the storyline somewhat "over the top". In this tale I find that Doss gets everything just right and has written a great book. As alwasy I enjoyed aunt Daisy Perika, Scott Paris and of course Charlie Moon who is a tremendous fictional character. This is a find read that I found extremely enjoyable and look foward to reading the rest of the series. I find myself getting a comfortable feeling whenever I pick one of these books and look forward to a new adventure with old friends.

As an aside, you will find that James Doss, along with every other Southwestern mystery, will be compared to Tony Hillerman, the father of the genre. In my opinion James Doss is a much better author. If you like this genre read James Doss!