fbpx
BooksScifi

A Few Words For The Dead (Section 37 book 3) by Guy Adams (book review).

‘A Few Words For The Dead’ is the third book in Guy Adams’ ‘Section 37’ series, featuring the eccentric August Shining and his new recruit, Toby Greene. For me, it is a series that is already filled with ups and downs. I really like the first book, I absolutely loved the second book and, with this one, I’ve gone back down to just liking it. The problem I have with this one is fairly easy to define and it all comes down to the storyline of this individual book.

AFewWordsForTheDead

August Shining has been brought in for questioning by Section 12, the branch of MI6 responsible for investigating security risks within the British Intelligence Services. They want to know all about Lucas Robie, an unusually talented man with the ability to charm anyone he met and an excellent trait for a spy. Shining brought Robie into the forces and had to deal with the consequences when things went horribly wrong in Berlin, many years ago. Mysterious forces were at work then and now they seem to be back to taunt Shining, coming back to claim an old debt they are owed. In the meantime, Toby and his new wife, Tamar, are on the run from a wind demon set on them by Fratfield, who wasn’t too pleased at how things turned out during the episode of ‘The Rain-Soaked Bride’. Desperate to help Shining, Toby must first save his wife and figure out a way to be rid of Fratfield once and for all. By the time he’s done that, it might be too late for all of them.

The main part of this book is set in the past, with August recounting the story of Lucas Robie to his present day interrogator. It’s an interesting tale with some nicely spooky supernatural entities in play and some creative plotting happening throughout. Interspersed with this are sections of August with his interrogator and the far too infrequent dips into Toby’s situation and April’s investigations into her brother’s situation.

I said before that it was easy to pinpoint my issue with this story and it all boils down to the fact that there is no interaction between August and Toby and, to a lesser extent, April. The relationship between these characters really made ‘The Rain-Soaked Bride’ sing and it was so well executed. August is fine and I did still like this book, but without that interplay of the different personalities and, with Toby almost totally absent from the storyline, it just didn’t reach the same level as the previous book, which is a great shame.

Another slight niggle I have is with the blurb writer who states on the back cover that Toby is being ‘pursued around the globe by the relentless Rain-Soaked Bride’ which isn’t true at all. She was released at the end of the previous book and is only given a passing mention in this one. It’s a shame that slipped through the net as the possibility of more ‘Rain-Soaked Bride’ action was intriguing if somewhat unexpected.

I hold out hope that the next book in the series (I assume there will be another one at some point as things are left to be answered in this one) brings the two characters back together and we can once again enjoy the wonderful blend of characters and action seen in ‘The Rain-Soaked Bride’.

Vinca Russell

April 2015

(pub: Del Rey UK/Ebury.304 page small enlarged paperback. Price: £ 8.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-0-091953-19-5)

check out website: www.delreyuk.com

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.