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Legally Blind Luck
Legally Blind Luck
James J. Cudney | 2021 | Mystery
5
5.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
On the Trail of a Cursed Talisman
Summer is just starting, and in the break before Kellan starts to teach a summer course, he is helping with an exhibit of African artifacts that is setting up on campus temporarily. However, moments before the official opening, Kellan stumbles on another dead body. He’s also hearing about a talisman that might be cursed. Is it on campus? What does its legend have to do with the current murder?

Yes, this book does address the cliffhanger from the previous book, and it ties into the plot of this one. The entire thing was a bit of a stretch, but it mostly worked for me. The soap opera feel of the series is still intact here, for better or worse. The characters sniping at each other was cut down, which I appreciated, but the cast is still very large. The summarization of dialogue continues to annoy me. And either I missed a couple of things or the attention to detail was lacking. Still, fans of the series will be happy they picked up this book.
  
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Daniele Luppi & Parquet Courts feat. Karen O - Talisa (Audio)

“Talisa” by Daniele Luppi & Parquet Courts featuring Karen O - from Luppi’s concept album MILANO, out now via Danger Mouse’s 30th Century Records.

  
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Sarah (7800 KP) rated Black House in Books

Jan 4, 2020  
Black House
Black House
Stephen King, Peter Straub | 2001 | Fiction & Poetry, Horror, Science Fiction/Fantasy
8
8.8 (12 Ratings)
Book Rating
Another of King's epic stories
Stephen King is my favourite author, so I'm always going to enjoy his stories although it varies as to how much. I have a particular fondness for his short stories or epic doorstop sized novels, and I'm pleased that Black House falls into the latter.

The Talisman is a great story, and this is a very welcome sequel with Jack now as a rather endearing and heroic adult, scarred by his past. This is a story that starts off as a standard crime story and as it goes on turns into a fantastical horror, filled with King's usual mix of well written secondary characters and a nice amount of gore. What I also loved about this is how it links into other King stories - not just The Talisman, but others that I won't spoil but are very much beloved.

That's not to say this book is perfect. It is VERY long and I feel like there are parts of this that get too rambling and long winded, and there are some parts that could quite easily have been cut out without impacting on the main plot. There are also a few characters in this with odd speech impediments or accents, and trying to read their manner of speech gets very irritating after a while.

But apart from this, this is a hugely enjoyable King epic novel. Although only one to read if you've read The Talisman - this is not a standalone sequel.