Silver Master [Mass Market Paperback]

Jayne Ann Krentz returns under the Jayne Castle penname to give us another paranormal tale in the Harmony series (After Dark, After Glow and Ghost Hunter), and again, I think it JAK at her very best. I think she is fresher, more like her peak style in the Castle books, and I look forward to each new addition. It's great world-building - Covenant Marriage, psi powers, dust bunnies, powerful guilds and even more powerful men who control them.

Celinda Ingrams is the leading authority on Covenant Marriages, which are similar to old marriages of the ton really, people marrying for the advantage of both parties. Only, her matchmaking ended in trouble, so now she is flying low - or so she hopes. Her dust bunny convinces her she needs a toy, only the toy turns out to be something else entirely. It's one of the relics left over by the mysterious alien race that once lived on Harmony. The relic was stolen from the Guild at Cadence, and the Guild boss is determined to see it fetched back. To the aim, he employs Davis Oakes to aid in it's return. Davis owns and runs Oakes security, but he is also a Ghost Hunter. He has rare talents, even for a ghost hunter, and also has secrets, both which he tries to keep under his hat.

Readers won't be surprised when his psi clicks with Celinda. Celinda is not too thrilled with the prospect, as all this brings her too close to the Guild again, which threatens to bring out all the old secrets she has been trying to avoid. As the pair becomes a target, they are force to join their psi talents in order to stay one step ahead of the person who will stop at nothing to possess the relic.

I highly recommend the whole series, as well as Amaryllis, Orchid and Zinnia.

Jayne Castle's paranormals are all good fun if rather more lightweight than many of the others being published today. "Silver Master" returns to the world of Harmony featured in her books "After Dark", "After Glow" and "Ghost Hunter". These books are all a good read and the world Jayne Castle (AKA Jayne Ann Krentz or Amanda Quick) has created is enjoyable enough, if rather internally incongruent. Over time and reading the books I've wondered how on earth such a small group of settlers, marooned 200 years ago on a strange planet, can afford to spend time on archaeology and relic-collecting and museums when presumably they're still fighting for survival. Especially as it seems an awful lot of people are involved in the antiquities trade - rather a luxury good in a difficult and hostile time for the settlers. Anyway, if you suspend disbelief it's great fun.

"Silver Master" introduces yet another type of ghost hunter. With the last book we learned about the blue freaks but our hero in this book, Davis Oakes, works with silver light to kill his ghosts - and it also has a few other strange effects on him. One of these side-effects of silver ghost light means that Davis's fiancée was so shocked that she called off their wedding at the last minute, a wedding arranged by a matchmaking agency. Consequently this rather put him off marriage in general and matchmakers in particular.

Unfortunately Davis finds himself having to consult a matchmaker in his professional capacity as an investigator as Celinda Ingram was known to have purchased an artefact that had been stolen from a powerful man in their city, and the thief had then turned up dead. Celinda's tame dust-bunny runs off with the artefact after she has agreed to give it back and so Davis and Celinda have to spend time together whilst they hope the dust bunny returns the relic. As they learn more about each others' histories they also find that someone else is looking for the relic, someone who is violent and that Celinda isn't safe. Can she be kept safe, both from the person after the relic and from her family's matchmaking expectations?

This is a very easy read although the background information on the world of Harmony isn't as well detailed as in earlier books and so readers new to the series starting here might be occasionally confused. Nevertheless it's good fun to read and although not particularly deep in terms of characterisation, world-building or plot it's inoffensive stuff and will definitely satisfy those who have liked her other books in this series.

Jayne has a way of writing that keeps you turning pages, this is yet another great read as are all the rest