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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A gut-punch of a mystery, October 14, 2003
This review is from: Perfect Trust: A Rowan Gant Investigation (Paperback)
I was in the middle of one of Patricia Cornwall's Kay Scarpetta mysteries when I picked up "Never Burn a Witch," the second book in the Rowan Gant series. After only a few pages, I put Cornwall aside until I finished it - and didn't go back to it until I'd finished "Perfect Trust" and "The Law of Three." With each book, the stakes grow higher for Rowan Gant. There is a real sense of place in the St. Louis setting. The positive portrayal of pagan religion makes it a fascinating read, but Sellars never lets the religious aspect overshadow the mystery. This is a more personal story than the first two books in the series. When the danger comes too close to home, it impacts Gant with crushing realism, and we hurt with him. It takes a stellar storytellar to make that kind of impact on a reader. I cannot recommend the Rowan Gant series highly enough.
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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Perfect Trust: A so-so addition to a good series, August 8, 2002
This review is from: Perfect Trust: A Rowan Gant Investigation (Paperback)
M.R. Sellars made a strong start with "Harm None", the debut of the Rowan Gant series. The first book was a very good read; an eerie and exciting mystery, well written and full of suspense, made even better by the added dimension of modern witchcraft entwined with police investigation. I absolutely loved "Harm None". The second Rowan Gant book, "Never Burn a Witch", was also a very good read. Although not quite up to the toe-curling evil of "Harm None", I still found it very engrossing. I was delighted when the third book of the series, "Perfect Trust", arrived last week. I settled down for what I expected to be a great night's reading..... I found this book to be a disappointment. In contrast to the previous books, there is very little character development, the crimes themselves are quite mundane, and Rowan's main claim to fame - that of being a psychic/witch - really has very little to do with the crimes at all. Despite the introduction of a red herring and many attempts at misdirecting the reader, the eventual ending (and the killer) is painfully obvious from the first 50 pages. When "Perfect Trust" finally limped to its unsatisfying end, I was left feeling like the story never really got started. Although I had known exactly who the killer was for over 300 pages, I still had no real reason WHY. This is not a terrible book, and is still worth a look, but don't judge the series by this entry! Read "Harm None" instead - or at least, first!
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Suffer Not a Witch..., July 24, 2002
This review is from: Perfect Trust: A Rowan Gant Investigation (Paperback)
This is the third volume of the Rowan Gant occult detective series. It opens just before Christmas almost a year after the dramatic bridge scene that ended 'Never Burn a Witch.' Rowan is still haunted by his close brush with death, and is unable to shake the belief that Eldon Porter, the witch hunter, still lives. Because of this, Rowan is having a great deal of difficulty remaining grounded. Already experiencing chilling nightmares, Gant is on the edge of being overwhelmed spiritually. He is even beginning to sleepwalk. Inevitably, Rowan's sleepwalking (actually, sleepdriving) leads him to the site of a death, one which the police are still investigating. This puts him in conflict with his wife Felicity, and his friend Ben Storm. Both of them have watched Rowan gradually deteriorate, and have agreed to keep him out of any further 'investigations.' When Rowan starts automatic writing on top of everything else, Felicity and Ben insist that the witch seek psychological help. The stress is inescapable though, and Rowan realizes that he has become connected with a dead rape victim, and his nightmares are visions of the crimes of a serial rapist. Rowan is clearly out of control, and the resistance from his wife and friend make things only worse, cutting him off from support when he dearly needs it. Instead, his closest human contacts become the demonic cheerleader who is haunting him as she seeks her own brand of justice and with the mind of the rapist himself. But the clues refuse to gel, and soon even more is at stake. Rowan is beginning to succumb to compulsions set by the victims. With his own sanity at risk, is becomes more and more clear that, lacking a solution, Rowan will face overwhelming loss and pain. The plot is fairly complex, and would have been a complete puzzler if a tiny snippet of conversation in the last third of the book blown the killer's cover for me. This is one of those things I hate as a reader - when you know who did it, and the sleuth is still clueless. I also find Rowan's habit of seizing disaster whenever the opportunity presents itself makes him a bit unsympathetic. The man has a suicidal heroing complex. Of course, the personal issue here is Rowan's self-destructiveness, so this is forgivable -- this time. Sellars writes well, although his characters are a bit too uncomplicated for the circumstances. This plot has some imaginative twists, and the story arc about Rowan's nemesis, the witch hunter, is beginning to develop as well. If Rowan will grow up a bit, and Ben Storm figures out how to stop acting like a cigar store Indian, there is great potential for a long-term series. Of course, if Rowan doesn't get it together, there won't be much more of a series anyway, just a ring side seat at the next witch's funeral. I heartily recomment acquiring the early volumes in the series. They are good fun, and will explain some of the events mentioned in 'Perfect Trust.'
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