Shaman's Lure

 
Title: Shaman's Lure 
Author: Frank Talaber
Published: 31st March  2015
My Rating: 3/5
Recommend: Yes/No
Synopsis:
 
Vancouver’s mayor is found brutally slain in Stanley Park. His family missing.

With no clues to either, an enigmatic old native, claiming to be a shaman, shows up swearing he knows the answers. Plays tag-your-it and disappears without a trace.

After a night of drunkenness a reporter wakes up in a part of town he’s never visited and begins investigating why he's having strange nightmares of a life not his. Which begs him to question the validity of the urban myth, when you get drunk enough you don't remember anything you did? Could it be possible there's a place where spirits might take over to have a little fun on their own?

I received this book free in an exchange for an honest review 

When I first began reading this book I was not immediately hooked to be honest, even though from the synopsis it did sound intriguing to me at first. The beginning is quite strange if you ask me, it starts with Carol's POV then switches to another character's a few times, now reading another character's POV isn't so bad if you know what's going on. When the perspective changes you don't actually realise cos it has no subtitles, all it has are asterisk symbols (*) it takes no Einstein to guess that its a change in scene. So the Mayor and his wife are murdered and the question is who did it and why? Why are the two bodies that are found at a distant from each other? And where is the missing child? These are questions that Dectective Carol Ainsworth tries to solve, but this specific case is a mystery since nothing makes sense (see what I did there with mystery? No okay, I will carry on then).



Dan, or Big Dan as they refer to in the book is kind of like the 'chief' or 'manager' in the book, atleast I think he is who oversees the cases in the Police department. Big Dan is depicted as someone who is hardcore, aggressive, macho and has no time for bullshit, but like Carol he also has a certain sensitivity towards seeing the bodies in such horrendous situations and positions,

"Other than the long, coiffed blonde hair one couldn’t much make out the fact the body was female. Her head had been stove in, crushed beyond recognition"



Can you imagine these replusive images? I can, it had a few graphic scenes likes this where I just had to take moment and pause. I have no idea how the author had the guts to write scenes like this, I for one cannot take them. Your also introduced to Charlie, a Shaman who talks nuts and I mean literally he is mentally unstable or atleast what he says makes the other person think like that

" She laughed. “You really are a totally off-the-wall nut, unlike anybody I’ve
ever met.”
“Nuts, hey. Never cared for walnuts. I prefer peanuts or pistachios. Although,
come to think of it, I do like a chew of pecans on occasion.”

Lol you would think he is nuts right? I definitely thought he had a screw loose or something.

And the next contestant is... Ben. I can't decide if he is the odd one or Larry. Why you might ask? Well Ben is shown to have nightmares about some freakish accident but its unknown if it is him or someone else and why is he having them? Well that is what Ben and I would like to know, and why can't he remember what happened with his date with Brandi? Ben is shown to be a journalist who has a date with Brandi and can't remember what happened after he went to the bathroom, all he knows is that he woke up in his car drunk in some area he rarely goes to.
Comes in Larry, who is a dead spirit that possesses people's body to take revenge on Riley? Now why would he do that? Funny thing is he can only do that when the other person is in a drunken state; makes it easier since they are not in control of themselves. Larry wants to take revenge on Riley for ruining his life and killing him. Riley is the bad boy in the story who gets what he wants and likes to be in control. Also, he has a secret so shhh......

This is where it really gets interesting, the Lure who is a witch and wants to come in to the real and take revenge on those who trapped her inside the rock. She has a very strange way of taking the life force out of her victims. Personally I was repulsed by it.

I thought this story was okay but it didn't really hit it off for me at the beginning, it started to get interesting through a 1/4 of the book but by then I was losing interest in it. I think the story could have been really good if the focus of the plot was more clearer, I felt like there were too many sub plots before everything tied together which was way towards at the end of the book. 

 What are your comments about these type of books? Would you guys ever read something like this? Let me know your thoughts in the comment below!

Until next time, happy reading!