Excalibur by Tini Howard vol. 2

Collects Excalibur (2018) 7-11.

Writer: Tini Howard

Artists: Wilton Santos, Marcus To

This collection is clearly divided to two story archs. The first one is a hunt but this time Excalibur is hunting Warwolves, the wolf-like silver beings from the first volume in 1990s. I believe they’re originally from Mojoworld. Then we’re solidly back in Otherworld and dimension hopping, reality altering stuff.

Apocalypse needs the skulls of Warwolves in order to establish a gateway to Otherworld. The Warwolves are imprisoned in London Zoo so our heroes head there. Except that the Warwolves aren’t there. Cullen Bloodstone has acquired them. Betsy goes to see him and he invites our heroes to his manor, to hunt the Warwolves. Then Excalibur talks a bit about if it’s okay to kill intelligent beings. But since Warwolves have killed innocent people, they decide it’s ok. Of course, the hunt doesn’t go as planned.

In the next story, people in London hate mutants. They burn images of Jean Gray and professor Xavier and the gates to Krakoa. Kitty and Rachel come to the rescue with a flying ship. However, Betsy needs to go the lighthouse and she heads to the Starlight Citadel which used to be the home of the Captain Britain Corps. But Opal Luna Saturnyne, who commanded the Corps, doesn’t like Betsy. So she sends her own, new battalion of priestesses against Excalibur. Fighting ensues!

Meanwhile, Jame Braddock with his reality-altering powers is getting bored so he creates his own realities!

A lot is going on in this series. It also uses the Hickman style of storytelling giving us a page of backstory at least once an issue.

The second story is weird. But I love weird X-Men stories. Is it one of those… maybe? I’m mostly enjoying it. I still don’t care about Rictor or Apocalypse. And Gambit is weirdly grumpy all the time. And it ends clearly in the middle of a story, in a cliff-hanger. Also, I think the upcoming crossovers probably limited the storyline and the characters available.

Some characters from the original Excalibur comic make an appearance. Most noticeably Peter Wisdom who is Britain’s agent and works as a liaison between the team and the Queen. Kitty and Rachel’s appearances are way too brief.

I am rather excited about the strange new reality and how our Excalibur is going to react to meeting their counterparts.

 

Alison Morton: Retalio

The third book in the Aurelia Mitela alternate reality thriller trilogy.

Publication year: 2019
Format: ebook
Page count: 338 at GoodReads
Publisher: Pulcheria Press

A year ago, Aurelia Mitela was secure and happy in her life. She was the foreign minister of Roma Nova, a former special forces major, and as a Countess she was also the head of her family. Her daughter has married and moved to EUS. But after Caius Tellus usurped the throne of Roma Nova and ruthlessly pursued everyone in the legitimate government, Aurelia barely escaped with her life. Now, she’s officially an exile and thanks for Caius’ very public lies, even the small group of other Roman Novan exiles think that she’s betrayed her country and her honor. They want nothing to dow with her. Even her former friends have turned away from her which breaks her heart. Only her lover Miklos still believes in her.

Aurelia is still recovering from a near fatal shooting but she must stand up to the other exiles and convince them that even with their small resources, they must start a plan to retake Roma Nova. But Caius sends both assassins and legal teams after her. She turns to her old allies, both political and personal. But many won’t help her, at least publicly.

The final book in the trilogy continues shortly after the end of the previous one, Insurrectio. It’s mainly political intrigue but Aurelia has assassins after her and she goes on a scouting mission to Roma Nova.

Caius was a smooth manipulator in the previous books. Now, he shows his ruthless side. He believes that women are too emotional to lead and enacts laws that force women not only to step down as business owners and soldiers, but make them legally beholden to a man; husband, father, or brother. Not surprisingly, the independent Roma Novan women loath this and Caius’ soldiers enforce the laws brutally. Aurelia sees this from a distance but it’s still quite disturbing. Of course, many men are against these laws, too.

This is set in 1980s so it’s also historical fiction. It’s fast-paced and entirely from the first-person POV from Aurelia. This was an excellent ending to the series.

 

Peter O’Donnells and Enrique Romero: Million Dollar Game

A reprint of the Modesty Blaise comic strips 61, 62, and 63.

Publisher: Titan
Original publication years: 1987-1988
Titan publication year: 2011

I finally got my hands on an English language MB album. Funnily enough, the second story is one of the first I actually ever read.

The first story is “Butch Cassidy Rides again” where Modesty and Willie are riding an old outlaw trail in the US. They come to a town where the locals are reviving the spirit of Western films for tourists’ enjoyment. However, during a mock gun battle, Modesty realizes that one of the shots was real. She noticed the young man whose thigh has been shot and with her quick action, saves his life. Meanwhile, Willie goes after the shooter. However, Willie is surprised from behind and the shooters get away. Also, the shooters looked like Butch Cassidy and his gang, so the local sheriff doesn’t believe Willie’s account. He dismisses Modesty and Willie as nutcases looking for celebrity.

The next day, Willie and Modesty meet a girl who is helping her grandparents against local ruffians – who look like Butch Cassidy and his gang. Willie and Modesty decide to stay and help the girl and her grandparents.

The next is “Million Dollar Game” which starts many years ago, when Modesty had just disbanded her criminal organization the Network and retired. She has taken up a new hobby: rescuing abused donkeys. The vet she calls to care for them, Greg Lawton, becomes her lover but they part ways after a few weeks. Then we move to the modern day. Someone is leaving short love notes to Modesty at her hotel. Outside the hotel, Modesty witnesses someone attacking a man. She saves him. He turns out to be the vet Lawton who is a bit peeved that Modesty didn’t recognize him. He also left the notes. Lawton is currently working for WWF trying to catch poachers.

When his airplane burns, Modesty offers to fly him and help him against the poachers.

The poachers are ruthless and well-armed. They are shooting rhinos and elephants for money and have killed game wardens before. As soon as they see that Modesty is helping Greg, they plan to kill both of them.

The last is a fun and intense adventure “The Vampire of Malvescu”. Willie and Modesty are traveling in Transylvania by foot. They have a bet about which of them will arrive first to the castle of Malvescu which is owned by one of the men who were in the Network. However, when Willie arrives to the castle, he’s astonished to find out that the former bachelor has married a very innocent girl. When Modesty arrives to the local town, she’s told that she shouldn’t go to the castle because a vampire hunts there. The vampire has already killed one girl. But Modesty heads to the castle anyway – and a vampire attacks her!

When Romero took over, the comics got more nudity. Especially in the third story, the former Network man’s wife spends a lot of time topless. I’m surprised the British newspapers allowed it. It’s also a bit strange because Modesty and Willie think that she’s very innocent.

These were all fun stories, first in a Western theme and the last set in the rocky Transylvania. The last two stories bring out Modesty’s love of animals, especially of donkeys.

 

Peter O’Donnell and Neville Colvin: the Double Agent

A reprint of the Modesty Blaise comic strips 58, 59, and 60.

Publisher: Titan
Original publication years: 1985-1986
Titan publication year: 2011

This collection has three fine Modesty Blaise adventures. These are the three final stories that Colvin drew. Romero returns in the next story.

The first one, “the Wild Boar”, starts on Modesty’s estate in Tangier where one of her lovers, Doctor Giles Pennyfeather is staying a while with her. When they’re leaving a restaurant, two men try to rob them. Modesty fights them off, of course, but her brooch is damaged. The man who comes to repair it is a psychic. He sees a flash of the man who gave the brooch to Modesty, the head of French Intelligence Rene Vaubois. Rene is alive and near, but hurt.

Soon, Modesty finds out that Rene has disappeared. Even his closest aide thinks that he has defected but Modesty doesn’t believe that. Using the clues that the psychic gave, she, Willie, and Giles head to Corsica to confront a ruthless crime boss called Le Sanglier, the Wild Boar.

In the next story,”Kali’s Disciples”, Modesty and Willie are in India, going to see the old holy man Sivaji who has taught them skills which have saved them countless times. However, when they’re spending the night in the palace with one of the local former rulers, they hear that the cult of Kali has revived and killed people in the traditional way, strangling. During the night, the cultists attack the palace. However, Modesty and Willie drive them off. The duo heads to the desert to see Sivaji. Of course, things aren’t so simple.

The last story, “the Double Agent”, starts with the bad guys somewhere behind the Iron Curtain. They have worked for years to train and surgically change a female agent to look exactly like Modesty. She also has all of Modesty’s fighting skills. She’s called the Replica. She’s sent with a team to Britain to kill Tarrant and put the blame on Modesty. Willie is away but another team is sent to kill him, if he returns to Britain.

Meanwhile, Willie is enjoying his holiday mountain climbing. Unexpectedly, agent Maude Tiller gets a week’s vacation and Willie heads back. The team activates to kill him and Replica’s team goes to action to kidnap Modesty and kill Tarrant.

These are all very exciting stories and all have some recurring characters. Giles has only appeared in books before. He’s very kind man, decent and honest, working in remote areas to heal poor people. Modesty likes him very much. The Indian ascetic and holy man Sivaji’s teachings have appeared many, many times and we’ve met him in only two other comics. The final story is set in Britain so many familiar characters appear. Still, it’s quite possible to enjoy the stories without knowing anything about the characters.

Another very good collection.

 

Peter O’Donnell and Enrique Romero: the Puppet Master

A reprint of the Modesty Blaise comic strips 22, 23, and 24.

Publisher: Titan
Original publication years: 1971-1972
Titan publication year: 2006

“The Stone Age Caper” is set in Australia. Modesty is vacationing with her new boyfriend David Collins when her old acquaintance Wu Smith comes by to warn Modesty not to buy anything for a while. Smith and his buddy are doing a heist and don’t want her involved. Meanwhile, Willie riding a camel in a desert. He comes across a wounded, pretty girl who says some people are after her. He takes her to an abandoned village to nurse her back to consciousness. He and Modesty communicate through radio and she decides to fly to him on a small plane. Wu Smith’s associates want her dead.

This story shows its age in dialog when Modesty and Willie are talking about the aboriginal Australians. They’re called “Abo” which would be quite offensive these days. On the other hand, one of the aboriginals in this strip was in Modesty’s criminal Network and clearly Modesty and Willie respect him and his skills. And there’s also a mention that the aboriginals don’t want to mess with the white men no matter what the white men do, because aboriginals know they will be blamed, no matter what. The aboriginals are clearly heroic in the story.

“The Puppet Master” is one of the most intense MB comics. The story starts with a chess game that the bad guys are playing. An elderly doctor Baum analyses the others’ moves. Next, Modesty is driving near Naples when she sees that a car has hit a donkey. She comes out of the car and the men attack her. She fights but one of them manages to inject her with a tranquilizer. She tries to fight but the drug overwhelms her.

Meanwhile, Willie is training Tarrant’s agents, especially a pretty new agent Maude. Tarrant comes in and tells Willie that Modesty’s car has been found; she’s been killed in the crash. They travel to Italy. Her body hasn’t been found abd Willie refuses to believe she’s dead. He remains in Italy to look for her. Tarrant thinks that Modesty’s is dead but he orders Maude to remain with Willie, to comfort and help him but also to learn from him.

The bad guys have, indeed, kidnapped Modesty and they’re brainwashing her to kill Willie.

One of my favorite tropes is the amnesia story line and I love this one. The bad guys try to convince Modesty that they’re her friends and she’s part of their criminal gang. Willie has sworn to kill her. Meanwhile, Willie and Maude are going through the Italian underworld. Maude is a smart and capable agent, but just learning the job. She appears in a couple of later strips, too.

“With Love From Rufus” is a more comedic story. Someone breaks into Modesty’s penthouse. He breaks to her safe which has been modified by Willie, so it’s not easy. However, in the morning she notices the break in and realizes that nothing has been taken and a bouquet of roses has been left in the safe with a note that they’re from Rufus.

Modesty is astonished and charmed. She meets with Scotland Yard’s inspector Brooke. He talks about a new genius jewel thief in London and introduces his young nephew Rufus to Modesty. Rufus is a huge fan of both Modesty and Willie. He gushes over her criminal exploits. When they go to Modesty’s car, three men attack them but Modesty fights them off. In her apartment, Willie has come to a surprise visit and is shocked to learn that the youngster has broken into the safe.

Modesty and Willie try to warn Rufus away from a life of crime, but Rufus is proud of his skills as a burglar and wants Modesty to fence the jewels he’s taken. Modesty is in a terrible position as Brooke’s friend. But when Rufus is kidnapped, the game turns deadly.

Rufus is around twenty but Modesty feels that she’s much older than him. His admiration feels uncomfortable to her but Willie (and the readers) think it’s funny.

All three are very good stories and I enjoyed them a lot.

 

Peter O’Donnell and Enrique Romero: Green-Eyed Monster

A reprint of the Modesty Blaise comic strips 19, 20, and 21.

Publisher: Titan
Original publication years: 1970-1971
Titan publication year: 2005

This collection starts Romero’s long run as MB artist. All three stories are fun and wacky.

“Willie the Djinn” is set in a small country in the Middle East. The story starts in a casino where sheikh Kadhim Al-Mashaf has played a lot of backgammon against Modesty and he’s lost a lot. He wants to continue playing against her and even Willie can’t hide Modesty from him. Meanwhile, Willie has found a group of dancing girls whose manager has ditched them. When the sheikh offers a job to the girls, they only agree if Willie will come with them as a chaperon. Willie’s of course shocked and Modesty comes along, as well, to make sure Willie behaves.

However, when they’re in the sheikh’s plane, one of the girls finds a bomb which takes down the plane. A coup is in progress and Modesty and the girls land right in the middle of it.

This story has even more sexy girls and male gaze than is usual for Romero’s MB. It’s also got a lot of funny moments right from the start when Modesty is trying to hide from the sheikh’s servant and later when Willie convinces a little girl that he’s a djinn… sadly, without magic.

“The Green Eyed Monster” is set in a small country in South America. Modesty has a new boyfriend, zoologist Gil de Serra. Gil’s very jealous ex-girlfriend comes to chew out Modesty but Modesty tosses her to a pool. However, when the jealous ex, who is the daughter of the local British ambassador, is kidnapped Modesty, Willie, and Gil set out to rescue her from the group of revolutionaries.

This story again shows us that Modesty has compassion even for people who insult her. This story has also several humorous scenes, but they’re set after the half-way point.

While “Death of a Jester” is set in a British castle, O’Donnell manages to bring exoticism to that place, too. One of Tarrant’s British Intelligence operatives was assigned to investigate a group of highly skilled and eccentric former army commandos who are now mercenaries. The operative is killed by a knight on a horse, under the eyes of two very shocked teens. The operative was dressed as a jester.

The mercenaries enjoy dressing up as medieval knights and hunting people in the castle’s park. Modesty and Willie infiltrate them, assuming the roles of bored wealthy people.

The medieval shenanigans are just hilarious.

I throughly enjoyed this collection, as well.

 

Judith Tarr: A Wind in Cairo

A stand-alone historical fantasy book set in 12th century Egypt.

Publication year: 1989
Format: print
Page count: 260
Publisher: Bantam

This is a book for horse lovers. It’s a fairy tale expanded to a fantasy.

Hasan is the pampered only son of a rich emir and a thoroughly self-centered, gambling, drunken womanizer. He also lives in Egypt in a time when all decent women live in harems. When he finally gambles away his father’s prized mares, his father has had enough and just tells Hasan that he’s going to be sent for a Beduin who will make a man out of Hasan. Hasan escapes. But instead of doing anything useful, he spends the night drinking, womanizing, and spending the last of his money. After he’s robbed and beaten, he staggers to the house of an old man who nurses him back to health. Recovering, Hasan meets the beautiful young woman who has been nursing him and rapes her. She’s the old man’s daughter. The old man turns out to be a magus and he transforms Hasan to a horse, a red stallion. The magus tells Hasan that he will be a slave to a woman and will die in the horse form.

Soon, a girl does buy Hasan the stallion. She’s Zamaniyah who is around 14 but already has a great eye for horses. She’s also the only daughter of Hasan’s father’s mortal enemy. She names Hasan Khamsin and starts to train him together with her father’s horsemaster, a Greek slave.

The POV characters are Hasan/Khamsin, Zamaniyah, and her eunuch slave Jaffar. Because all of Zamaniyah’s brothers have been slain (by Hasan’s father), her father had decided to raise her has a boy and his heir. She’s forbidden to enter harem, where all of her father’s women, including concubines, live and she’s forbidden to wear women’s clothing or makeup or anything that rich women of that time had. Instead, she’s taught to ride, fight, hunt, and care for horses.

The first half of the book is mostly about Zamaniyah training the horse Khamsin. The second half is set during the sultan Salah ad-Din Yusuf’s war campaign and is quite different from the first.

Zamaniyah is a great character. She always obeys her father, even though sometimes she wishes that she could be an ordinary girl. But on the other hand, she enjoys horse and knows that this is the only way she can train and ride them. But when she’s angry, she forgets to be obedient and quiet, so that nobody will notice how strange she is. She takes a liking to Khamsin and uses a gentle “Greek” way to train him as a warhorse. The women scorn her and the men can’t be friends with her, so her only friend is Jaffar, her eunuch slave who is devoted to her. She also befriends one of her father’s concubines who is a captured Frankish woman.

Tarr doesn’t shy away from showing us the Islamic world at the time, which includes (rich) women shut away to harems, slavery, eunuchs, and that woman are chattel to men. Most men don’t accept Zamaniyah but they must respect that it was her father’s choice to raise her as a boy. Also, the book dealt with surprising amount of rape, although not in any titillating way. So, despite Zamaniyah’s age, this is definitely not YA.

I thoroughly enjoyed Zamaniyah and Khamsin was mostly entertaining, too. I mostly enjoyed this story and except for the fantasy bits, I think it’s fairly accurate description of the times.

 

Peter O’Donnell and Jim Holdaway: Bad Suki

A reprint of the Modesty Blaise comic strips 13, 14B, and 15,

Publisher: Titan
Original publication years: 1968-1969
Titan publication year: 2005

The title story, Bad Suki, unfortunately shows its age: it’s about hippies who use drugs. Modesty, of course, is against all drugs (except tobacco and alcohol which they both use a lot). Willie saves a teenaged girl from diving to her death. She’s dirty and high. He takes her to Modesty’s place. Modesty bathes her and washes her clothing which the girl, Amanda, doesn’t like. However, Modesty knows that she can’t help her or anyone else who doesn’t want help. So, when Amanda briefly lectures to Modesty and Willie about their too safe lives, Modesty doesn’t say anything. Amanda leaves. But Modesty wants to know more about London’s illegal drug trade. So, she and Willie put on hippie clothes and infiltrate the scene.

The Galley Slaves: Modesty and Willie are on a cruise on a ship which is owned by Modesty’s friend. However, the owner’s friends are terrible snobs and they put down Willie at every opportunity. Ten days later, Modesty can’t stand them any longer. She and Willie simply swim away from the ship to a small island near Tahiti. They have minimal supplies but manage just fine. Willie is building a raft when they suddenly see a Roman style trireme sailing to the island.

The Red Gryphon is set in Venice. Modesty has made a new conquest, a young architect Max who is renovating an old estate for a millionaire. Modesty spots a ragged, eleven or twelve year old boy who who is running from the police. She helps him and gives a meal to him and his best friend. Meanwhile, Max starts to behave in a secretive way, saying that he found something he’s sure Modesty will love but he won’t yet talk about. But that morning, he’s found dead. Modesty must get to the bottom of it.

This story is perhaps the most “usual” of Modesty stories. But the inclusion of the two runaways who live on the streets, stealing and scamming, makes this more personal.

All the stories have great character moments. We already know that Modesty hates drugs and in Bad Suki O’Donnell really digs deep to this side of her. Galley Slaves shows the duo’s unique ethics, concerning the people they used to work with. The duo used to be criminals but even then they were only after money and didn’t hurt people unless they had to. They didn’t and still don’t respect violent criminals or people who exploit or abuse others. In the last story, the two street urchins remind Modesty (and us readers) about her childhood. On the other hand, Modesty and Willie are ruthless to their enemies in this collection.

 

Peter O’Donnell and Jim Holdaway: Mister Sun

A reprint of the Modesty Blaise comic strips 4-6.

Publisher: Titan
Original publication years: 1964-1965
Titan publication year: 2004

This is a another very good collection of early Modesty adventures.

“Mister Sun” is set during Vietnam War and introduces one recurring character: Weng. The story starts with Weng whose whole family died when he was quite young. Modesty found him starving on the streets and took him under her wing. She’s currently paying for his university studies. However, Weng notices something in a newspaper and then he needs need money desperately. He’s already so indebted to Modesty that he feels that he can’t ask for more. So, he goes to a local crime lord, Mr. Sun. Sun agrees to help him, but for a price. Sun knows his tie to Modesty and he hates her, so he uses Weng to put a trap for Modesty.

Modesty hears that Weng has gone missing and travels to Hong Kong to investigate. When Mr. Sun contacts her, he has a suggestion: he’ll tell her where Weng is but only if Modesty will smuggle eight kilos of heroin for Sun. If she won’t, he’ll kill Weng.

This story features a ruthless and truly evil villain. Sun is one of the biggest crime lords in Hong Kong: he’s responsible for 70% of the city’s drug trafficking. He hates Modesty, because she’s broken up his ring in the past, and wants to break her mind before killing her. He knows how much Modesty hates drugs so forcing her to smuggle it will be his triumph.

This is also the story where we see for the first time a practice fight between Modesty and Willie. They practice as hard as they can: only softening killing or incapacitating blows. This time, as many other times, they use martial arts without weapons.

Despite his progressive views on feminism, O’Donnell does have his drawbacks as well, namely racism and homophobia. This story was written in 1964 and it shows: the Asian characters are very stereotypical, either evil or submissive to white rule.

“The Mind of Mrs Drake” starts with Mrs. Drake who is a psychic; when she touches an object she gets impressions of future or current events happening to the item’s owner. We know right from the start that she’s up to no good because she’s scheming with sinister looking chap called Korzon. She’s worried because a client has written a full confession which presumably would expose her and Korzon. Korzon reassures her that it will be taken care of. Next, Drake does a reading for her client and a little later Korzon kills the client.

Then Modesty enters the story. She’s playing tennis with a beautiful blonde Jeannie. Jeannie is actually Tarrant’s agent, working for British intelligence. Tarrant has sent her to be bait for Mrs. Drake and Jeannie is a bit scared of the job. However, she continues with it. Then Jeannie is kidnapped from her father’s home, right from the living room. Her father is a retired Navy agent and now blind. When Tarrant tells Modesty and Willie what happened, she sets up an appointment with Drake, determined to get Jeannie back.

This story clearly illustrates Modesty’s and Willie’s loyalty to any person who they consider their friend. If anything happens to any of them, they’ll walk through fire to set things right again. The ending also shows their kindness. Interestingly enough, Jeannie’s father, Mr. Challon, has a major part late in the story. He’s blind but his other senses have grown stronger to compensate for that and he proves to be very useful in a unusual situation. In later stories, O’Donnell has another blind person who can “see” with their ears.

In “Uncle Happy” Modesty is on a holiday in San Diego diving and harpooning fish. When she harpoons one big seabass, a very cranky underwater photographer, Steve Taylor, yells at her for ruining his photo. Of course, he can’t resist her, and they become lovers. After a few days, they go to Las Vegas. But while they’re playing in one of the casinos, Modesty sees a strange looking man glaring at her new lover. Later, two thugs kidnap Steve intending to murder him. Luckily, Modesty is there to stop it. She has questions to him and Steve has questions about her, but instead of resolving things, Steve leaves.

A couple of days later, Willie arrives. Apparently, one of his previous girlfriends has been murdered and the person responsible is the strange looking man in the casino. The man pretends to be a philanthropist and the press even calls him Uncle Happy. He has a island for disenfranchised kids, mostly girls. Modesty and Willie are determined to find out what’s going on. Steve also shows up.

These were good, early adventures with meticulous plotting and lots of action.

 

Brent Nichols: Gears of a Mad God: A Steampunk Lovecraft Adventure

An action/adventure novella set in Toronto in 1920s. The first in a series but can be read as a stand-alone.

Publication year: 2012
Format: ebook
Page count at GoodReads: 98

Colleen Garman is an clock maker and she also makes other mechanical gadgets. That’s pretty unusual for a young woman in 1920s and her boyfriend isn’t shy about expressing his distaste for her work. However, when Colleen gets a telegram which says that her uncle Roderick has died, she drops everything and hurries to Toronto where he lived and died. There she meets Roderick’s friend Jane who tells her that apparently uncle Roderick had lost his mind before he died. However, Colleen notices strange men who follow her and want to hurt her.

This story has some steampunk elements but is light on Lovecraftian horror. This was a definite plus for me because I’m not a horror reader. Instead, the story’s almost constant action adventure with chases, fights, and shootings. Colleen isn’t a trained fighter and must hold her own in a very surprising and demanding situations. She does it admiringly. Also, she faces a couple of hard choices.

I liked the characters but they weren’t really developed. In fact, we don’t really get to know much about them, just hints of what’s to come. Colleen is a pretty straight forward heroine, an ordinary person called to do extraordinary things. I was intrigued by the idea of Bureau of Investigations reporting directly to US president. They’re a secret organization investigating the cults who are trying to resurrect the elder gods. A great twist on the origins of FBI. However, it wasn’t explored further in this novella.<br

It’s not a deep. But it’s a lot of fun and very entertaining. Currently free on Amazon.