REVIEW: “Dead End” by Stephen Osborne
ABOUT:
Sequel to The Scarlet Tide
A Duncan Andrews Thriller
Duncan Andrews’s best friend Gina is a witch, his bulldog Daisy is a zombie, and his boyfriend Robbie is a ghost. Duncan himself is just your average private detective, who happens to specialize in paranormal cases.
Robbie’s cousin, Jason, has a problem. The house he’s living in is haunted by the ghost of serial killer Dr. Stanley Moore. Duncan thinks banishing the spirit will be an easy task, but when confronted, the ghost nearly kills Duncan.
If that’s not bad enough, a witch-hunting group called the Order of Cotton Mather have tracked Gina down and are bent on destroying her. And Robbie and Duncan’s relationship may be nearing an end, as Robbie feels he’s holding Duncan back from having a lover he can actually touch.
Duncan must rid Jason’s house of the evil Dr. Moore, save Gina, and somehow manage to hold onto Robbie in the process.
REVIEW:
I love Stephen Osborne’s “Duncan Andrews Mystery” series. It offers an entertaining world of a private detective who deals with paranormal cases, along with a ghost boyfriend, a witch best-friend, and a zombie dog.
Although I wasn’t completely happy with the previous book, I would say that this latest installment was a winner. In fact, this was probably my favorite book in the series. The storyline was pretty straightforward. Duncan and the gang were dealing with a case involving a haunted house with a malice ghost that was stronger than any ghosts they ever encountered before. Seriously, a haunted house man! Totally a recipe for horror movie, right? And there were some creepy things going on here, complete with blood on the wall stuff. It kept me on the edge of my seat (or bed, since I mostly read it lying down).
There was an additional plot regarding Gina’s boyfriend. But it wasn’t as action-heavy and throughout, it felt more like background noise, a secondary plot, and it was resolved pretty much the way I guessed it would be. (ALTHOUGH, that plot was the one that gave the BIG resolution to the arc that started from the first book. And what arc was that? The Robbie beinga ghost as opposed to Duncan being a human arc.)
For me, that was the main attraction to the series. It was a rather sad situation as engaging as Mr. Osborne wrote it. I thought that Duncan and Robbie were ‘it’; and they deserved to be happy. One of the reasons for me not feeling completely satisfied with book #3 was how Duncan seemed to keep going back and forth regarding Robbie and Nick (another character who became part of the gang). I was totally happy that it was NOT the case here. Duncan and Robbie were solid again. Duncan realized that Robbie was the love of his life and no matter what happened, he would always be in love with Robbie. There were some ROMANTIC moments between Duncan and Robbie that just made me want to decorate my Kindle with heart doodles.
Anything else I could say will spoil the ending. So I will just say that it does have a happy development. Mr. Osborne also told me via Twitter that there would be more adventures of the gang. So that is definitely something to look forward to.
RATING: 4 STARS
BOOK INFO:
Title: Dead End (Duncan Andrews Thriller, #4)
Author: Stephen Osborne
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Pages: 200
Release Date: August 25, 2014
Purchase Links: Dreamspinner Press, ARe, Amazon
About Ami
I’ve just got The Scarlet Tide to read – enjoyed the first 2, didn’t realise book 4 out already – off to the buy list I go!!
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Buy it at ARe. You can get 30% rebate for it. Only until Sept 1st. Hurry!
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Thanks!
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