Still Life With Devils [Paperback]

Deborah Grabien (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 10, 2007

It's mid-October in San Francisco and a serial killer the police have named Captain Nemo has just claimed his sixth pregnant victim. As tensions rise, two people work desperately to find the killer before he claims number seven. Homicide chief and single father Cassius Chant is desperate. Whoever Nemo is, he's left no evidence beyond an ever-lengthening line of dead women. Finally, a witness to the sixth murder comes forward. Involving his artist sister Leontyne is the last thing Cassy wants to do, but with a possible eyewitness and the staff artist out sick, he has no choice. Only when Leo draws the killer's face does Cassy begin to believe he will finally unravel the twisted threads of this case. While Cassy pursues leads that may lead to justice, Leo knows she can find and face this demon alone. She's drawn that face before and she has a gift that transcends her artistic skill. Leo can walk into the worlds she's created on canvas. This time she's going to do it to find a killer. "As gentle as Barbara Michaels's paranormal suspense novels,Grabien's are also as downright frightening as Daniel Hecht's Cree Black thrillers." Library Journal "[Grabien]. makes the fantastic seem possible." Publishers Weekly "[Grabien]...builds the kind of sophisticated suspense that surrounds and embraces us to make our minds spin and the hair on the back of our neck rise." Boston Globe

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Grabien (New-Slain Knight) turns to supernatural crime with an artistic twist in this eerie thriller. Leo Chant and her brother, SFPD Lt. Cassius Chant, join forces to identify Captain Nemo, a psycho who kills pregnant women and then arranges their corpses according to feng shui principles. After Nemo claims a seventh victim in broad daylight, an elderly Chinese eyewitness helps Leo provide the police with a sketch, but the almost demonic features give Leo a shock. Has she seen them before? Digging through old sketchbooks with Mara, her preternaturally wise teenage niece, leads Leo to a dangerous attempt to catch Nemo by entering the shadowlands of painted reality through Leo's painting of the killer. Leo's blend of art and magic is a novel and intriguing method for closing cases and will leave readers hoping that a sequel is in the works. (Dec.)
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Review

Grabien (New-Slain Knight) turns to supernatural crime with an artistic twist in this eerie thriller. Leo Chant and her brother, SFPD Lt. Cassius Chant, join forces to identify Captain Nemo, a psycho who kills pregnant women and then arranges their corpses according to feng shui principles. After Nemo claims a seventh victim in broad daylight, an elderly Chinese eyewitness helps Leo provide the police with a sketch, but the almost demonic features give Leo a shock. Has she seen them before? Digging through old sketchbooks with Mara, her preternaturally wise teenage niece, leads Leo to a dangerous attempt to catch Nemo by entering the "shadowlands of painted reality" through Leo's painting of the killer. Leo's blend of art and magic is a novel and intriguing method for closing cases and will leave readers hoping that a sequel is in the works. (Dec.) -- Publisher's Weekly, October 8, 2007

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Product Details

• Paperback: 228 pages
• Publisher: Drollerie Press (December 10, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0979808103
• ISBN-13: 978-0979808104
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,628,313 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Is No Ordinary Supernatural Thriller, December 15, 2007

By 

A. L. Miller "windsparrow" (Minneapolis, Minnesota USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Still Life With Devils (Paperback)

This is no ordinary thriller: It is steeped in the deepest meanings of connection and family, minding and mining it's own connections to classics of detective novels. Yet like the workaday world made alien in a San Francisco fog, it takes the lessons learned at the knees of the Grand Dames of British Mysteries, and makes them startlingly new. Where Sayers' mysteries seemed velvet-genteel over the steel of justice, this is the steel with the velvet tied back out of the way for a fight.

5.0 out of 5 stars Enjoy a thoughtful suspense, March 19, 2009

By 

Michael F. Stewart (Ottawa, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Still Life With Devils (Paperback)

Set in San Francisco, a serial killer is on the loose. While I've read a few too many serial killer novels, this is where the similarity ends. Still Life with Devils is refreshingly different while retaining what makes a mystery fun.

Grabien writes with style and depth. In this suspense with an artistic bent, her characters are richly drawn. I enjoyed the interplay between brother and sister, daughter and niece. Family certainly plays an important role in both character development and plot. Grabien presents a very strong female cast. Most of all, however, I enjoyed her use of description. I found it apt and the prose suggested a writer at ease with the page, in control. Nothing seemed forced. And little pieces of information delivered in the context of description came into play throughout, suggesting a well constructed novel.

The climax is masterfully written. I can't say why without a spoiler, but let me say Grabien took a risk and it paid off. The language of it had a wonderful poetry. This being my first Grabien novel, I'll look forward to my next.

3.0 out of 5 stars 3.5 - A traditional mystery with a psychic twist, August 6, 2008

By 

L. J. Roberts (Oakland, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Still Life With Devils (Paperback)

First Sentence: Theresa Gabriel, 8 months pregnant, was on her way home.

San Francisco has a serial killer targeting pregnant women and Lt. Cassy Chant, single father of a very unusual 14-year-old girl, is leading the investigation. A witness stops the killer, in the midst of the crime, and Cassy turns to his sister artist Leo, to fill for the police sketch artist.

Both Leo and Cassy sense the killer is familiar to them, but it is Leo's unique ability for psychic traveling leads her to seek the killer on her own.

Grabien has given us a traditional mystery with a psychic twist. The target of the murders is difficult to read but there is no gore. It takes the classic elements of a serial killer police procedural but layers it will elements of psychic abilities, geomancy, and the strength of a family.

I liked all the characters; Leo's talent, strength and self-assurance; Cassy's determination and protectiveness; and his daughter Mara's old-soul perceptiveness. There is a romance that works with, but doesn't get in the way of, the story. Set in San Francisco, her sense of place is wonderfully done.

There were a few weaknesses; the dialogue was a bit patchy and the ending seemed rushed. Conversely, the twist was well done and the suspense definitely there. I always enjoy Grabien's books and would recommend it to those who those enjoy a psychic theme, but not to those who are pregnant.