Book Review: A Shadow over Haven by David Green

Nick Holleran has quickly become one of my favourite fictional characters, which is odd because I'm generally not into P.I. stories. The supernatural aspects of this one make this series different.

In this third book (not counting the prequel) of the series, we are artfully reminded of who's who in the cast of characters as Nick breaks the fourth wall and talks to the reader. It's very well done.

I was more aware of the present tense writing at first this time. I'm not sure why as the previous books in the series were also in present tense. Green does it well so it gets past me unnoticed most of the time, assisted by Nick breaking the fourth wall to speak directly to the reader. It didn't take long for me to get too caught up in the story to notice anymore. As usual, Nick is up to his ears in strange, supernatural happenings. The stakes escalate in this one far beyond anything he's dealt with before and the excitement level just keeps going up. Even when you think you've read the last showdown, there's one more to come. I found myself seriously wondering if Nick had bitten off more than he could chew this time and all would be lost. Maybe not all, but there are sacrifices to be made. The theologians would have a conniption fit over a lot of the world building in this story especially, though they probably wouldn't accept Earth as Hell from the earlier stories anyway.

Green's use of mythological entities and perhaps one or two he invented himself is artful and reads plausible, no matter how much we know it's Fantasy. The story is very well done and the further I read, the harder it got to quit for the night.

Possibly the best new story I've read this year!