The Spook and the Spirit in the Stone
Book Details
Author(s)Jilly Paddock
PublisherCathaven Press
ISBN / ASINB007232XOY
ISBN-13978B007232XO0
MarketplaceFrance 🇫🇷
Description
A nine year-old girl is abducted on a backwater colony world. Bad enough, but Sophie Crispianou is the daughter of the Terran Ambassador and the step-niece of Earth’s President, and the kidnapper has struck before, leaving his victim dead.
Finding the child falls to Detective Inspector A. Afton Lamont and her new partner, Jerome. The Earth authorities don’t trust the local police to solve such a high-profile case and send in some help from Terrapol, an agent with psionic abilities – a spook. Giselle is beautiful but deadly, a mind-reader and possibly much more, and her only goal is rescuing the lost child, regardless of the consequences. Can this unlikely team find Sophie and save her before tragedy strikes?
Deep in an abandoned mine at the edge of the city, something lurks, something old and evil, woken by the tears of a scared little girl and the cruelty of her captors. Jerome crosses its path, but Jerome has his own secrets and he isn’t exactly human. Can he defeat the Spirit in the Stone?
An S-F detective novella. Cover by TCO.
Quote from the British Fantasy Society review -
"It’s usually a positive thing if a story is difficult to categorise. This one is set in the future on another planet; only some of the characters are human; and there’s a scary supernatural beastie. At heart though, it’s a noirish thriller, complete with kidnapping, assorted murders and a gruff but engaging first person narrator.
It takes both confidence and skill to mash up genres like this, and Ms. Paddock has pulled it off nicely. It’s competently set up, with further surprises along the way. The characters are well-drawn, and I enjoyed spending time with all of them. Her prose is classy and smooth and the unfolding of the plot is paced to keep us on our toes. The narration felt quite dry at first, but it fits the character.
My only complaint is that I wanted more. There are half a dozen good characters in here, two or three of whom are well fleshed out, but I really liked Jerome, Lamont, Sophie, Giselle, even Vincenzo. It felt like meeting some really cool people, having a brief chat about all the things you have in common, then never seeing them again. I wanted to relax a bit with Jerome and Val and find out about Lamont’s home life. I wanted to get the feel of Ms. Paddock’s world.
There is enough invention here to fill a novel, and it would be a more satisfying read at maybe three times its current length. It could even succeed as a series of novels, especially since the rules of her universe are so fluid."
Finding the child falls to Detective Inspector A. Afton Lamont and her new partner, Jerome. The Earth authorities don’t trust the local police to solve such a high-profile case and send in some help from Terrapol, an agent with psionic abilities – a spook. Giselle is beautiful but deadly, a mind-reader and possibly much more, and her only goal is rescuing the lost child, regardless of the consequences. Can this unlikely team find Sophie and save her before tragedy strikes?
Deep in an abandoned mine at the edge of the city, something lurks, something old and evil, woken by the tears of a scared little girl and the cruelty of her captors. Jerome crosses its path, but Jerome has his own secrets and he isn’t exactly human. Can he defeat the Spirit in the Stone?
An S-F detective novella. Cover by TCO.
Quote from the British Fantasy Society review -
"It’s usually a positive thing if a story is difficult to categorise. This one is set in the future on another planet; only some of the characters are human; and there’s a scary supernatural beastie. At heart though, it’s a noirish thriller, complete with kidnapping, assorted murders and a gruff but engaging first person narrator.
It takes both confidence and skill to mash up genres like this, and Ms. Paddock has pulled it off nicely. It’s competently set up, with further surprises along the way. The characters are well-drawn, and I enjoyed spending time with all of them. Her prose is classy and smooth and the unfolding of the plot is paced to keep us on our toes. The narration felt quite dry at first, but it fits the character.
My only complaint is that I wanted more. There are half a dozen good characters in here, two or three of whom are well fleshed out, but I really liked Jerome, Lamont, Sophie, Giselle, even Vincenzo. It felt like meeting some really cool people, having a brief chat about all the things you have in common, then never seeing them again. I wanted to relax a bit with Jerome and Val and find out about Lamont’s home life. I wanted to get the feel of Ms. Paddock’s world.
There is enough invention here to fill a novel, and it would be a more satisfying read at maybe three times its current length. It could even succeed as a series of novels, especially since the rules of her universe are so fluid."
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