Customer Reviews

Double Dog #5: House of Doors / Jaguar Moon

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I've been familiar with Julia Mandala's work since reading A slow Day in Hell in The Mammoth Book of Comic Fantasy II. Linda Donahue is a newer writer to me, but I became a fan of hers after reading The Four Redheads of the Apocolypse. So I purchased this book with high expectations. I'm happy to say that I wasn't dissappointed.

Fans of the television show Supernatural will enjoy Donahue's Jaguar Moon. Although Donahue's characters are original and her universe follows different rules, Sam and Dean would feel right at home with Johnny McBride and Simone Perkins.

On the flip side, I couldn't put down Mandala's Doors. There were times when I could sympathize with Evan, because I wanted to smack his aunt over her stubborn pig-headedness. But that just shows how real the characters had become to me.

Double Dog #5, JAGUAR MOON by Linda Donahue and HOUSE OF DOORS by Julia Mandala continues the tradition of the first four Double Dogs -- the quality is first-rate and the stories complement each other perfectly.

In JAGUAR MOON, Donahue mixes a ghost-hunter with hoodoo, voodoo, and Central American folklore and comes up with a winner. Simone Perkins is on a ghost-hunt in Lousiana when her partner, Araceli, is kidnapped. To find her, Simone has to follow the trail of a were-jaguar to a city lost in time. Her allies, to use the term loosely, are a cocky monster-hunter, a witch's ghost, and a live witchwoman. Each character has his or her own charms and flaws and the story moves rapidly enough to suit even me.

In HOUSE OF DOORS, Mandala's story hits the ground running, with 15-year-old Evan flynn learning his mother has died and he's to live with his only surviving (or present -- his father had ducked out years before) relative, his mother's sister. Aunt Kate could probably take on Sarah Connor and spot her the first fall. It turns out Kate has a mission; to keep nasty things from entering our world through a hallway of doors to other dimensions in her house. And there are other secrets besides. As I said, Mandala's story hits the ground running and doesn't let the reader go until the end of the story.

I only wish the book were in hardcover because I suspect I'll be re-reading both stories now and again. It's good enough that hardcover publication would be justified.

Why get two books when you can get one? "Jaguar Moon/House of Doors" is a combination mystery collection from Julia S. Mandala and Linda L. Donahue, offering two mystery novels under one cover. A whole lot of mystery for one's money, "Jaguar Moon/House of Doors" is a top pick for any mystery novel fan living on a budget.