Death of an Adept [Import] [Hardcover]

Katherine Kurtz & Deborah Turner Harris (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 464 pages
• Publisher: Severn House Publishers Ltd; 1st HARDCOVER edition (1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0727852760
• ISBN-13: 978-0727852762
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #967,709 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An fine successor to Dion Fortune's "Dr. Taverner" stories, April 28, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Reed City, Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Adept: Death of an Adept (Paperback)

In every one of Ms. Kurtz's "Adept" books, there comes a moment of such overwhelming mythic beauty that I get watery-eyed, or cry. "The Death of An Adept" is no exception, and for me, it is when the young psychic artist Peregrine finally gains his wings as a magical adept in his own right. Every book in this series is a fine successor to the occult fiction of Dion Fortune, combining hermetic principles effectively with skillful and dramatic storytelling and a high moral sense. Here, as previously, we see that evil is its own punishment, and that a good heart, and one annealed by self-discipline and fine training, can overcome many (supernatural) obstacles.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Quaint Ol' Occult Detective Goes Sharp-Edged, April 9, 2005

By 

J. H. Minde "Everything I need is right here" (Boca Raton, Florida and Brooklyn, New York) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Adept: Death of an Adept (Paperback)

DEATH OF AN ADEPT is the fifth, the latest,(and thus far, the last) volume in THE ADEPT series. Hopefully, authors Kurtz and Turner Harris will reincarnate the series at some point in the future, as it is engaging and highly enjoyable. DEATH OF AN ADEPT, moreover, moves the series in new directions.

DEATH OF AN ADEPT finally sees Sir Adam Sinclair marry his lady love, Dr. Ximena Lockhart. The two settle into married domesticity at Strathmourne House where they are soon under attack by The Lodge of The Lynx, their nemesis throughout the series.

Several Adepts do die in the course of the story, and in some particularly unpleasant ways. It appears that Kurtz and Turner Harris have finally realized that mere self-centered selfishness such as we've seen before in the series does not equate with real evil, and have redrawn their bad guys, particularly Francis Raeburn, as corrupt and sociopathic---in a word, vile.

Peregrine Lovat and his wife Julia are almost overcome by an occult device known as a "Hand of Glory" made from the body parts of a gibbeted criminal. Sir Adam himself is captured by Raeburn and used as the sacrificial victim in a particularly detailed and gruesome Black Mass. Raeburn reanimates the spirit of the nefarious William de Soulis, a Scottish sorcerer of the 1700s who wreaks havoc in his new incarnation.

DEATH OF AN ADEPT is a tale noir far more than any of its predecessor novels. There are even a few four-letter words sprinkled into the dialogue, something that hasn't happened before in this series, which always had the quaint and proper air of the drawing room about it.

DEATH OF AN ADEPT is both a modern murder mystery and a gothic horror tale. Kurtz and Turner Harris do a fine job here. It's a shame they haven't continued the series as of yet, because here, embryonically, we have a syncretic "Profiler Meets Dracula" theme which opens up all kinds of fascinating possibilities for this already well-established series and its characters.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Followup, November 27, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Adept: Death of an Adept (Paperback)

I started reading the Adept because K. Kurtz wrote it and I liked her Deryni series. I had no idea how good it was. Since that first book, I have continued to read and be impressed. Death of an Adept keeps the standard of the Adept series has high as ever. It is a fitting end to the series of events that started in book 1. I loved it. I usually get bored with book series after awhile, but The Adept is proving to be the exception. I can't wait for the next book. Here's hoping that The Adept series continues to hit new heights.