by Simon R. Green
Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages
Published August 27th 2013 by Ace
ISBN13: 9780425259931
Meet the operatives of the Carnacki Institute—JC Chance: the team leader, brave, charming, and almost unbearably arrogant; Melody Chambers: the science geek who keeps the antisupernatural equipment running; and Happy Jack Palmer: the terminally gloomy telepath. Their mission: Do Something About Ghosts. Lay them to rest, send them packing, or just kick their nasty ectoplasmic arses…
Their latest assignment takes JC and the team to a small country village, site of a famously haunted inn. At first, JC thinks that the spirits in the King’s Arms are more the stuff of urban legend than anything that needs the Ghost Finders’ expertise. Then one story rings true: the tale of a traveler trapped by an unusual thunderstorm who retired to her room for the night—and vanished.
Trapped by an unusual thunderstorm—like the one that begins raging outside shortly after they arrive…
As the team investigates, they are forced, one by one, to face some hard truths about themselves, their relationships, and the haunting itself—truths that may push Happy Jack over the edge into the madness that he has always feared...
Spirits From Beyond is the fourth installment in the Ghost Finders Series. A ghost investigation series about three operatives of the Carnacki Institute, an organization focused on dealing with malevolent ghosts by any means necessary. The team leader is JC Chance an extremely chipper and arrogant ghost hunter who is obsessed with finding his lost ghost girl friend Kim. Melody Chambers is the ingenious field geek, who can literally use her computers to find, draw out and destroy ghosts. Then there is Happy Jack Palmer, a psychic who is in a never ending battle with himself over whether to use drugs to cope with his powers. The different personalities on this team lead to a number of hilarious situations and antics which is a constant in all four books.
The book begins with the Ghost Finders being contacted by JC Chance’s ghost girl friend Kim. She disappeared in the second book after an epic battle with a Carnacki Institute traitor who was serving The Flesh Undying, a powerful supernatural intelligence hell bent on destroying the Institute. JC discovers that in order to free his girlfriend, the team must go to the London underground. They find out that the Flesh Undying has been manipulating a fallen Celtic god who has been raising an army of ghosts for a final purge of humanity. This forces Happy to make a decision, either go back on his drugs to give him the power to stop this threat or face certain death? This is only the first of two investigations the Ghost Finders are sent on leading to a second even more dangerous situation.
I thought this was a great book because it went further in depth with the characters than it has in the previous books. Happy especially had to go through a lot of character development in this book, showing he had to use drugs to contain psychic powers which are slowly destroying his mind. The constant banter between him and his tech geek girlfriend Melody is hilarious. My only criticism is I feel Kim is an underdeveloped character and she was inexplicably given all these new powers. One thing I have always enjoyed about the Simon Green books is you never know what random supernatural creatures or threats you might see and that keeps things interesting.
4.5 Sheep
Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages
Published August 27th 2013 by Ace
ISBN13: 9780425259931
Meet the operatives of the Carnacki Institute—JC Chance: the team leader, brave, charming, and almost unbearably arrogant; Melody Chambers: the science geek who keeps the antisupernatural equipment running; and Happy Jack Palmer: the terminally gloomy telepath. Their mission: Do Something About Ghosts. Lay them to rest, send them packing, or just kick their nasty ectoplasmic arses…
Their latest assignment takes JC and the team to a small country village, site of a famously haunted inn. At first, JC thinks that the spirits in the King’s Arms are more the stuff of urban legend than anything that needs the Ghost Finders’ expertise. Then one story rings true: the tale of a traveler trapped by an unusual thunderstorm who retired to her room for the night—and vanished.
Trapped by an unusual thunderstorm—like the one that begins raging outside shortly after they arrive…
As the team investigates, they are forced, one by one, to face some hard truths about themselves, their relationships, and the haunting itself—truths that may push Happy Jack over the edge into the madness that he has always feared...
Spirits From Beyond is the fourth installment in the Ghost Finders Series. A ghost investigation series about three operatives of the Carnacki Institute, an organization focused on dealing with malevolent ghosts by any means necessary. The team leader is JC Chance an extremely chipper and arrogant ghost hunter who is obsessed with finding his lost ghost girl friend Kim. Melody Chambers is the ingenious field geek, who can literally use her computers to find, draw out and destroy ghosts. Then there is Happy Jack Palmer, a psychic who is in a never ending battle with himself over whether to use drugs to cope with his powers. The different personalities on this team lead to a number of hilarious situations and antics which is a constant in all four books.
The book begins with the Ghost Finders being contacted by JC Chance’s ghost girl friend Kim. She disappeared in the second book after an epic battle with a Carnacki Institute traitor who was serving The Flesh Undying, a powerful supernatural intelligence hell bent on destroying the Institute. JC discovers that in order to free his girlfriend, the team must go to the London underground. They find out that the Flesh Undying has been manipulating a fallen Celtic god who has been raising an army of ghosts for a final purge of humanity. This forces Happy to make a decision, either go back on his drugs to give him the power to stop this threat or face certain death? This is only the first of two investigations the Ghost Finders are sent on leading to a second even more dangerous situation.
I thought this was a great book because it went further in depth with the characters than it has in the previous books. Happy especially had to go through a lot of character development in this book, showing he had to use drugs to contain psychic powers which are slowly destroying his mind. The constant banter between him and his tech geek girlfriend Melody is hilarious. My only criticism is I feel Kim is an underdeveloped character and she was inexplicably given all these new powers. One thing I have always enjoyed about the Simon Green books is you never know what random supernatural creatures or threats you might see and that keeps things interesting.
4.5 Sheep
Guest Reviewer: Tim
About the Author:
Simon Richard Green is a British science fiction and fantasy-author. He holds a degree in Modern English and American Literature from the University of Leicester. His first publication was in 1979.His Deathstalker series is partly a parody of the usual space-opera of the 1950s, told with sovereign disregard of the rules of probability, while being at the same time extremely bloodthirsty.
