Novel by Natasha Monstert
This book cleverly combines fact with
fiction to create an enthralling adventure of the heart and mind.
Gabriel Blackstone once worked for
Eyestorm, (a fictional British version of the real secret STARGATE
project in America) where people with psychic talents were used to
track down missing persons until he made a terrible mistake. All that
is behind him now and he works as a hacker, a lucrative and exciting
job that gives him the lifestyle he longed for as a child.
When a former lover from his Eyestorm
days returns, looking for help to find her missing son-in-law, she
drags him into a world he could never have imagined. He is introduced
to two sisters, Minnaloushe and Morrigahn, modern day witches who
create their own modern alchemy, making natural products, and selling
terrifying tribal masks. He is drawn to them both.
But one of the sisters is a murderer.
I fell in love with the sisters the
first time I read this book. While they may be wealthy heiresses,
they are not clichés.
They enjoy operas, open mike poetry, kickgoxing tournaments and
graveyard picnics. Minnaloushe loves art, and has a doctorate,
Morrigahn is a nature warrior who once broke her back, and an
adrenaline junkie who loves bungee jumping. They are highly
intelligent, delightfully mysterious, and have that edge of charming
oddness that makes you unable to stop falling for them. I really
wanted them to be real so I could be a part of their dreamy world.
I love the mixture of fact and fiction
in this novel. Eyestorm is based on the real top secret STARGATE
project in America. In the afterword, the author mentions books you
can read to learn more about it. Memory palaces are also real, and I
find the concept fascinating. In the last season of Sherlock, it was
revealed that he used the memory palace system, which pleased me very
much. I also loved all the references to witchcraft and magic in the
past.
Combine that with some hacking, and the
'remote viewing' psychic powers, and you have a masterful and
thrilling story. The characters all have pasts and motivations that
make sense, and the rooms in the memory palace are delightfully
strange and surreal.
I first read this book about four years
ago, and it continues to be a favourite of mine.
"Six stars out of five." Really special.
You can also read this review or others on my goodreads account.
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