Dark Light (Ghost Hunters, Book 5)

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
Tabloid reporter Sierra McIntyre wants a scoop when she interviews Ghost Hunter Guild boss John Fontana about the disappearances of retired, homeless hunters. She doesnt want to trust the physically and psychically powerful man, but her intuitionand her dust bunny companiongive her the green light. To uncover the conspiracy within his own organization, Fontana proposesmarriage. And though its purely a business arrangement, theres nothing pure about the attraction that sizzles between them.

Customer Reviews: Read 27 more reviews...

3 out of 5 stars

A mediocre weak link in the series. August 31, 2008
13 out of 16 found this review helpful

It is painful for me to have to give this book three very mediocre stars but that is exactly where it falls on my enjoyment scale. I have read the other four Jayne Castle books about the planet Harmony and loved each one. I don't know what happened with this one but for me it was just not very good. The reason I gave it three stars at all is because I am hopeful that any book which follows it will get right back on track and live up to the quality of the previous books. I'm not giving up on the series just because of one middle-of-the-road product.

Years ago a mysterious curtain opened in space and a new planet was discovered. The people of Earth named this new planet Harmony and began to travel there and to colonize it. The atmosphere and conditions were very much like Earth. Then, without warning, the curtain closed again and the colonist on Harmony were stranded. Now, two hundred years later, they exhibit unusual paranormal abilities which not only allow them to survive, but to thrive.

Sierra McIntyre moved to Crystal City to get away from her family of overachievers. She considers herself an underachiever so she wants to start over someplace where she will not be compared to her other family members. Fine so far. Now for the improbable. In order to get a job she starts work for a tabloid newspaper, the Curtain, even though she has no experience in journalism. But, of course, she is writing investigative, hard hitting stories, not like the other stories which appear in the Curtain, and she wants some serious questions answered by the new Crystal Guild boss, John Fontana. The Guild boss is the man in charge of all the "ghost hunters" who have the paranormal power to control ghost energy found in the catacombs below the city. If these powers are not strictly contained they could be used in harmful ways. Fontana immediately sees the advantage of joining forces with this reporter (who has been a true nuisance for him since he took over as Guild boss) so he proposes that they enter into a Marriage of Convenience in order to investigate these problems together. Huh? What?

After being in the same room with each other for about one hour Fontana asks Sierra to enter into a Marriage of Convenience (not a permanent Covenant Marriage) with him and she agrees? Even though her family views the Marriage of Convenience as little more than a legalized affair, she still just says, OK, sure, why not! Pleeese Ms Castle, don't do this!!

None of the characters in this book are very well drawn. The entire book feels rushed, as if it was one of those Uh-Oh,-I-haven't-written-about-Harmony-in-a-long-time books. The plot is not strong, the mystery is not interesting or difficult to figure out (when they caught one bad guy, there was only one other character left!). In this series of stories each heroine has a dust bunny. Sierra states several times that dust bunnies are companions not pets. Her dust bunny is named Elvis and I think Elvis is way, way, too prominent in this story. I understand about the dust bunnies. I really do understand about the dust bunnies, but I still say that Elvis figures too prominently in this story. She took him with her when she went to get married??? Even though she just considered this a business arrangement? The romance aspect between Fontana (could we PLEASE call this man John once in this book?) and Sierra is just not real or compelling for me. At no point in their relationship did I feel that either one loved the other, even the ending was so-so, ho-hum, flat.

I will not give up on this series. I am a huge fan of Harmony and all the other books and characters. I am beginning to wonder if we aren't about to run out of cities to have Guild bosses for. I'm also afraid that Ms Castle might be giving the Harmony books less time and attention than they require and deserve. Let's all hope she gets back on track with the next one. I'll come back after one dud, but not after two.

1 out of 5 stars

Totally Mediocre August 29, 2008
11 out of 15 found this review helpful

Sierra McIntyre is an investigative reporter who is determined to uncover the Ghost Hunter Guild's secrets. Sierra has reason to suspect that homeless hunters are being kidnapped off the streets for criminal purposes, and she is determined to find out the truth. John Fontana is the newest guildmaster. Granting Sierra an interview, Fontana is immediately overwhelmed by the strong feelings he has for Sierra and offers her a business arrangement marriage in order to give her access to the guild, and at the same time woo her. Together, Sierra and Fontana, face numerous dangers to uncover the conspiracy that is going on in his guild.

This latest offering of Castle on her imaginary world of Harmony is easily the weakest yet. Castle assumes that none of her readers have discovered her previous books and spends about 100 pages retelling the history of Harmony, the ability to work amber, the different psi talents, the alien artifacts, etc. etc. I was never so bored with a book in my life. Finally, we get past all the tedious background and get to the story, which really wasn't much better. The chemistry between Fontana and Sierra seemed forced at times, the other characters seemed one dimensional and the mystery/suspense was really flat. The romance was only good in spots. Naturally one can't help loving Jayne's dustbunnies, but even this one was overdone and over the top. Do we really have a heroine who dresses her dustbunny up like Elvis and characters who make lame jokes about "Elvis has left the building"? Yes, we do. One last beef, the hero's name was John Fontana. Throughout the entire book - even in the love scenes, the heroine calls him Fontana. I don't know about you guys, but when I am in an intimate moment, I don't call my lover by his last name, even if he goes by it a lot. I waited eagerly for this book, as I truly enjoy Castle's Harmony series. Most of the books are 4 to 5 star reads. Sadly, this one stunk.

4 out of 5 stars

Classic Krentz/Castle August 31, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful

Jayne Krentz (Jayne Castle is one of her nom de plumes) is always a good read. She has a real gift for dialogue and strong characters. This book is no exception.

Her books have always been somewhat formulaic and have become more so, but that's probably unavoidable when you've written a gazillion of them. Here's the plot for this and most of her other books - plucky do-gooder woman meets somewhat emotionally closed-off but good man, instant attraction ensues which they approach cautiously (because, you know, they're not easy), some outside, evil force is threatening them, man resolves it with woman's help. In the meantime, the woman (just by being herself) resolves whatever family problems the man had which led him to be closed off in the first place.

In Krentz's paranormals the characters each have some sort of paranormal ability which is outside of the normal range of paranormal talents. In this case, the man (Fontana) can produce "dark" light, as distinguished from the normal green that virtually all ghost hunters use. This men-who-use-light-other-than-green thing has been the exotic aspect of the heroes of the last several books, but in this one it wasn't integrated into the story much at all as it had been with previous novels. The female lead (Sierra) has a highly developed intuition, also not particularly integral to the plot.

All in all, not one of her better efforts, but I love Krentz's writing and will continue to read all of her new releases, although perhaps not at full price as soon as they're released.

Three and a half stars for this one.

3 out of 5 stars

More action than romance September 16, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

Before I get to the book (which was OK, not my favorite by this author but not bad), I have to rant about the cover art. If I was unfamiliar with the author, I would have passed on this book purely because of the cover. It is a throwback to the old days of barechested cover models but the model they chose didn't reflect Fontana's appearance or character as described in the book. Sierra thinks no one would describe Fontana as handsome but he is compelling and you would always know he was the man in charge. The cover model doesn't look like a powerful, intriguing man who is head of an organization of dangerous men. He looks like a vaguely pretty boy in a bad wig pouting because the Abercrombie and Fitch closed before he could get to the mall. Even though I wasn't wild about the book, it deserved a better cover than this one. I hope when the publishers do a reprint, they change the cover.

Now to the book. This book continues my general complaint of the author's more recent books (under all 3 of her writing names): there isn't enough romance. And by this I don't mean there isn't enough sex (though readers who want lots of sizzling sex scenes should know there is very little sex on the book). When I read a romance, I want to vicariously experience the characters falling in love. A good romance novelist (and I would definitely put the author in that category) knows how to convey this. I didn't feel much emotional sizzle in the book -- it was a zero hanky read for me.

The action/investigation part of the book is better than the romance aspect, but it wasn't the most compelling plot the author has written. I'm getting a little tired of novels about Guild ghost hunters and dust bunnies. The book references other paranormal abilities in the population so it would be nice to have books about people with those abilities. I liked that Sierra had her own paranormal abilities and it was a nice touch to reference the Arcane Society from the author's books under her Jayne Anne Krentz and Amanda Quick names, but Sierra's abilities weren't used enough except as a warning system. (I note from the excerpt at the back of the book, there is a new Arcane Society novel where the heroine has a similar ability.) The inclusion of the tabloid newspaper as a breaking news source was amusing. A dust bunny Elvis was less amusing. Doesn't anyone in Harmony have a different pet?

My opinion of this book is probably more negative because I had just finished re-reading (for the umpteenth time) "Orchid," one of the author's much earlier "through the Curtain" novels. This book did not compare favorably. "Orchid" (as well as "Amaryllis" and "Zinnia") had all the plot and action of this book plus a lot more romance. I hope the author will look back at her earlier books and remember how she wrote the emotional story.

In the meantime, I highly recommend that readers go out and find Orchid, Zinnia and Amaryllis. I think they are out of print but at least 2 of them are fairly easy to find.

5 out of 5 stars

strong paranormal romantic whodunit September 3, 2008
4 out of 6 found this review helpful

Earth has colonized the world of Harmony but they were not the final sentient species to do so. A mysterious alien race built underground catacombs filled with psi energy that over time manifested among the earthy colonists with each generation growing is psi skill. The mysterious aliens are gone leaving only their infrastructure.

Tabloid reporter Sierra McIntyre is interviewing new Ghost Hunter Guild Chief John Fontana, who can manipulate psi energy so that it doesn't hurt anyone. Sierra is worried about former and homeless Guild member addicted to ghost juice and believes Fontana should tale care of the problem. She is also concerned that former impoverished hunters have disappeared without a trace and demands John investigate. Less than an hour after they meet, John proposes a marriage of convenience so they can combine their resources to investigate the issues that he feels generate from within the guild and to protect Sierra who is in danger from those shadows behind the disappearances. On their first night as husband and wife, someone using an alien artifact breaks into John's property with nasty intent. They escape into the catacombs for now, but traps and danger await them on every turn as the conspirators need to kill Mr. and Ms. Fontana to avoid discovery and disclosure.

It is always great to visit Harmony where Jayne Castle escorts readers through great romance and compelling mystery in an alien combo sci-fi fantasy world. The latest thriller is exciting and fast-paced as the alien objects are used by avaricious people to gain more power. The pairing of Sierra and John enhances their inquiry into what is going on inside the Guild as fans of the saga will relish this strong paranormal romantic whodunit.

Harriet Klausner

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