Well that was fun. Wendig created a fantastic antagonist for Miriam Black this time around and it just made the damn story sing.

All I can say at this point is, Wendig needs to get the next novel out.

Now. ( )

With the forthcoming publication of the 4th Miriam Black novel Thunderbird next week, I thought it high time to read the 3rd one. Unfortunately, I did not like it as much as the first two. Miriam is lured to Florida, with the promise of a $5,000 fee for using her special power of seeing someone's death by touching them. It turns out to be a fraud, as one of her nemeses who has his own equally impressive talent is out for retribution against Miriam and all she holds dear. The story's timeline bounces around with periodic interludes, which were not distracting. My favorite character is the fortune teller, Sugar, who tells you what you want to know and what you need to know in tandem. The old geezer with the cormorant is also well done. I guess I thought there was too much foretelling of deaths and I did not care for the two FBI agents, whose mission was always unclear. ( )

I give so few things five star reviews, but god damn... When is the next book out? Wendig's books always take me a while to get through, but I am never disappointed. I love to dislike Miriam. This isn't a problem like some other books. Miriam gets shit done, son, and chances are it'll involve blood and gunpowder. ( )

Dark and gritty as ever, I have to admit that I also had a slight bit of an issue with the first half or so of the read. It jumped all over the place between the present and the past and while it all eventually became obvious why it might have been necessary, it was still slightly off-putting. There were slightly less raunchy/funny descriptive elements than before, too, but that's a grab bag of happy oddities and discoveries that not everyone might enjoy. In other words, I loved them but not everyone would.

What really worked was the cat-and-mouse game between these death-birds. :) Psychopomps? Yes. Absolutely. Psychopomps utterly using and using up their hosts? Absolutely. Poor Miriam. She had it bad before and all of that old dark past becomes clear in this novel. It's quite a big reveal her as a character and despite any issues I might have had with the reading, it all gels together by the end.

It's definitely still one of the grimmest and darkest UF/mysteries with supernatural elements I've ever read. It's hard to like the main character, but she does grow on you like a piece of necrotic flesh. :) ( )

As she usually does, Miriam Black has annoyed just about everyone around and has been kicked out of the place she’s been staying. Just as she’s leaving though one of the guys gives her a lead to earn some money from what she does best. Someone in Florida is willing to pay her $5,000 to tell him how he dies. Of course it’s not going to be as simple as a quick road trip, a vision and letting him know. Not when Miriam’s involved anyway. When she gets there and does the deed, so to speak, she sees a message written just for her. It seems she was expected. Can she find out who by and what it means for her future or maybe lack thereof?

The format for this book returns to that of the first of the series where the narrative is interchanged with an ongoing interview for Miriam with a couple of FBI agents. The dark humour, vulgarity, violence and gore that are also trademarks of these books also return in bucket loads so definitely not for the squeamish. If you have a liking for seabirds then the final confrontation might make you rethink that. It’s also good to see more progression with Miriam’s story and will be interesting to see where the author takes things from here. ( )