The Taken (Celestial Blues 1) [Paperback]

*slight spoilers ahead*

I have to say straight away that Celestial Blues is a very different series from what Miss Pettersson wrote previously, as in it's not an urban fantasy. I was expecting one and to my (pleasant) surprise discovered that The Taken was a sort of a murder mystery with slight paranormal elements and distinct noir-ish undertones.

To give it a better definition I would describe it as a love child of Carole Nelson Douglas and Chris F. Holm.

Kit Craig is a intrepid small scale journalist whose family runs a local newspaper in Vegas. She is an interesting character, a rockabilly who loves living in the style of 1950s, a brave and bright woman with very distinctive views on what's right and wrong. Her and her friend Nicole are investigating a hidden prostitution ring on the outskirts of the city when Nicole is viciously murdered in the motel where she is meeting her informant.

Here comes Griff Shaw, who was murdered in the 50s and who since then has been promoted into a Centurion whose task is to take souls of the dead and help them to cross to the other side. He takes pity on Nicole and allows her to pretty herself before they go as the soul is mortified to spend afterlife the way she looked when she died, and while he waits Nicole manages to leave a message for Kit that starts a horrible chain of reactions beginning with Griff being thrown back into the mortal coil as a punishment and Kit marked for death.

Griff who never let go of his wife's death in the first place refuses to let another beautiful young woman die and instead of not interfering aids Kit in her investigation which uncovers more and more awful, gruesome details.

This was an excellent thriller, slightly dry, intense and dark. Kit and Griff are a great team and it's a pleasure to see their interactions as their views come from very different eras. Their attraction to each other might not feel romantic on the surface and lacks grand declarations of love, but it feels sincere for the emotional state they are in and the personal demons they are battling. I see strong companionship and great detective work in the future ;)

The villains in this book are not something to be taken lightly as well. They are chillingly real and truly evil, that's why you feel such a great satisfaction when they're brought to justice.

Overall, a solid, interesting read which I recommend without any reservations.

I really like the first three books in the Signs of the Zodiac series (the next two are on my shelf; I've yet to acquire the last), so I was looking forward to Vicki Pettersson's new Celestial Blues series.

But THE TAKEN's plot is nothing new: Powerful and/or wealthy men run a prostitution ring involving underage girls. Someone investigating it is murdered. The new element is a Mormon leader is a head honcho, auctioning off the virginity of girls in his Church, including his own daughters.

Organised religion. If it's not in an "inspirational" novel, it's usually portrayed as bad. These authors should take a page from "South Park": In that episode, yes, the origins of the religion are mocked, but the Mormon family and their values are really nice and non-corrupt. So why the evil Mormon in THE TAKEN? Yes, the guy needs a way to access to a lot of virgins, but why specify him as Mormon? He seems to not respect women, yet he's married a bunch of them. Polygamy may be illegal in some places, but it's not evil - not when everyone in question consents to the marriages.

I'm not religious or spiritual, but it made me uncomfortable to read. Like the whole religion is being judged as evil, instead of just this one character. That doesn't seem fair.

But I can be totally critical, too, and I am when it comes to the rockabilly "lifestyle" as portrayed in the novel. (The real deal may be entirely different, so I'm judging only the story's version.) Kit Craig claims it's not superficial, but when explaining what it's about proves that it does indeed sound shallow: Clothes, cosmetics, hairdos, tattoos, cigarettes, hot rods, and pinups.

Griffin Shaw, who actually lived in the 1950s, is suitably sceptical of the lifestyle. The '50s were like any other period - such as now - with war, corruption, street-hooking, and murder. There's a scene in a tiki bar (I still don't know what "tiki" means), in which there's something about the billies being afraid of death, so they choose to live like it's the past, but I don't quite follow.

Kit's logic differs to mine on other matters, too. I'm not a fan.

I'm fine with Grif, but I don't get all the stuff about the Everlast and angels. I often struggle with the supernatural (my logic), though; it simply requires too much suspension of disbelief, and I don't have that patience.

But the setting of Las Vegas is fabulous as always. Vicki Pettersson writes it so well that even someone like me who's never been there can learn to love it. But the rest of the book just didn't grab me. I'll be giving Book 2, THE LOST, a fair go, but what I really want to read is the rest of the Zodiac novels.

Vicki Pettersson is a good writer. No two ways about it. She's good at characterisation, she's good at dialogue, she's good at plot.

However, I have to say that this is not her best work.

Her two main characters are stereotypes (Strong, Silent, Sexy Guy With A Past, and Pretty, Plucky [but not too gifted with common sense] Heroine With Troubles). She writes them well, and in some authors' hands they'd have all the emotional impact of cardboard cutouts. But Grif and Kit do have life to them. Enough that I wanted to smack each of them, but for different reasons. There is some tension between them, and some of the scenes are extremely believable and well-written. However, the fact that they were so obviously tick-list stereotypes spoiled them as characters for me - their actions, while well-written, were predictable. In some cases, almost to the page. We had a bit more variety with some of the bit-part characters, some of whom I would like to see again - Ms Pettersson back on form, freed from the constraints of urban fantasy tropes.

The plot, unfortunately, had more holes in it than Swiss cheese, if you stopped to think about it (tip: if you want to enjoy the book, don't think about it) and, without giving away any spoilers, certain important - even crucial - aspects of it showed a woeful lack of research. Possibly one of those instances where the facts that 'everyone knows' and therefore nobody bothers to check, turn out not to be facts at all. There were also a couple of occasions where I thought "Darling, your prejudices are showing, and it's not attractive," which is always a bit of a jolt for me, and spoils the book. Or maybe it was just clumsy writing.

So, to sum up, with formulaic lead characters who appear to have been assembled from standard urban-fantasy parts (angels are In, I think), and a plot that is more cobweb than kevlar, this book could have been truly dire. Luckily, Ms Pettersson is a good enough author to make it work, up to a point. Am I glad I read it? Well, kind of. Would I read the second in the series? I'm not sure. Maybe, if I don't have anything better to do.