A.J. Scudiere was not an author I had heard of before; Griffyn Ink was not a publisher I was familiar with. So when I had the opportunity to read and talk about three of the Scudiere books, I jumped at the chance. Not really knowing what I would discover. I discovered a very versatile author who had a way to get her point across to the reader in some unusual and unexpected ways. The three books I read were RESONANCE (0-9799510-0-3); VENGEANCE (0-9799510-1-1); and GOD'S EYE (978-0-9799510-8-4). The versatility of the author is evident in her choice of subject that becomes the vehicle for her underlying, or so it seems, theme of the books.
It took me a while to get in to the book RESONANCE. The writing style was rather intense and the Drs. Jillian and Jordan sounded too much alike at first and it seemed that there were characters appearing from many diverse places. But once I got into the rhythm of the book and saw that Jillian and Jordan in the new jobs at the CDC were investigating some mysterious illness and deaths and that Dr. Becky Sorenson was investigating some strange animal behavior as well as a worrying mutation of frogs, it was not surprising to discover that a geologist and a paleontologist have discovered some magnetic hot spots that could signal a massive change for life as we know it. What ensues is a look at how people react when the polar reversal takes place and what will happen to the earth and its inhabitants -both plant and animal. Interwoven through out the book are some complicated interpersonal relationships as well as plenty to think about as to what is happening to the earth and its inhabitants- both plant and animal. The book in one way is a medical suspense story. It is also a look at nature. It is also in the realm of speculative fiction. We have a glimpse of what appears to happens when the polls shift. Massive illness. Massive deaths. Plant and animal changes and extinctions. And a possibility of two alternate worlds. when people die in one world, they appear to move into the other world. And it appears that the people who die and those who stay are divided by occupation. Interesting, it appears that the FBI are categorized as good and the CIA as bad. Oddly enough some can pass back and forth between two world. Jillian and David, the geologist are such people. But how they decide to handle this is a twist.. Adventure, speculations, and a message of change is there. One also get a sense of right and wrong and good and bad at play here as well.
VENGEANCE appears to be a whole new ball game. We meet a rather harassed FBI agent who has been tracking a serial killer for some time. The killer is known as the Ninja Grudge killer and appears to be slicing and dicing some bad guys up and then killing them. There have been no clues and nothing to point to who is the killer, but it is keeping Owen Dunham away from his family and traveling all over the country.
We meet Lee Maxwell. a loner, an ex accountant, who worked for the Mafia and then betrayed them They retaliated by killing all of his family. Lee went to ground and learned to become a master marksman and went about methodically killing the gangsters who had killed his family. He usually stayed in the eastern part of he country. lee is out for a kill when he discovers that there is someone else at his scene who also plans to take out this particular bad guy. The assassin is a young woman, Cynthia (Cyn) Beller who was a survivor when the Mafia killed her family. She came up through the foster care system and learned early to defend herself and she has added an arsenal of deadly martial art top her education and set out to eliminate the people who executed her family as well as some of those who abused her now dead sister when they were on foster care. Cyn is the Grudge Ninja that Owen is hunting. This chance meeting between Cyn and Lee begets a deadly partnership that covers the country and drives the FBI mad. They kill only the bad guys, but do a little free lancing from the ,Mafia when they discover some really evil people. This book is much more violent than RESONANCE and more gory. There are also fewer characters to keep straight and that is a plus. At times I wished that they would stop the murders and get on with the plot. The character development of Lee and Cyn was a work in progress. The reader could see that they were causing each other to humanize and relate to each other. And as this happened, they were not so mechanical and mistakes were made and clues were available for the FBI. The killers decided to quit and Cyn went back to school for a college degree and Cyn and Lee were now just Mr. and Mrs. Kincaid. And Owen is one of Cyn's teachers at college. When he discovers his Ninja is in his class will he turn her in or will the FBI have decided that justice has really been served?
GOD'S EYE is the story of Katharine Geryon and her struggle to find her own identity. She is the daughter of a wealthy owner of an investment firm and is in line to take over when he retires. She lives in a posh condo and appears to lead a rather lonely life, A sort of poor little rich girl. But Katharine is a work in progress herself and absorbs feelings and opinions like a sponge. She is unattached at present and rather set in her ways. But that is about to change. And Katharine is not sleeping well. Nightmares. Apparitions.Sooty stains on her carpet. And animals appearing in her room. What is happening? And to add to the upheaval she is assigned a new assistant at work who set out to charm her and seduce her as well. There is also Zachary, the handsome and charismatic man who moved in next door to her condo and who also sets out to woo and seduce her. Where the first book had an abundance of death and destruction, and the second book had a plethora of violence, this story is laden with sex. Katharine can not control her impulses around either Zachary or Alastair and she is still plagued by dreams and strange visitations, She hits the local library to research some of the things happening and to decipher the messages left on her mirror and is befriended by a librarian who helps her with her research as well as becomes her friend. Something that has been missing in Katharine's life. It becomes apparent that Alastair and Zachary and a demon and an angel fighting for her soul and Katharine is told she will have to choose one or the other in the end. She has feelings for both, but knows she can not really have them because their real forms are terrifying. She is attracted to both, but only one is good and in the end he breaks the rules and tells her that she does not \have to choose one of them. There is another choice. But for this lapse he is killed. During the struggle between good and evil going on over Katharine she has learned what happens with the companies the firm invests in and she also becomes more aware of right and wrong and the fragility of the environment. When her father is killed during an earthquake and a building collapse,Katharine decided\s to work for the good of mankind and the environment with her money. So good wins out in this fast paced book of the paranormal and eternal earthly struggle between good and evil.
I said Scudiere was a versatile writer. She is. Her subjects are varied and plots range from natural disasters to murders to the paranormal. BUT- there is one underlying theme in all the book. The struggle between good and evil and how we perceive it. Religion, in several forms, gets its props, but personal responsibility for doing the right things is high on the list of importance. And free will. I found these books tough to read at times. But I was help captive all the way through each book by wanting to know who would persevere and how. I am certainly looking forward to the next book out to see where this is all going.
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