No Man's Land by Theo Fenraven

No Man’s Land by Theo Fenraven

Pages: 170

Date: July 18, 2016

Details: ARC received from author

E-book

The blurb:

Amateur ghost hunters Cy and Zelda are invited to the BWCA in Northern Minnesota to investigate an alleged haunting at Brighton Lake Lodge. Mac, the owner, has returned home from London with plans to restart the family business, but the ghosts have to be dealt with first. 

Interesting things happen the moment they arrive; it seems there isn’t one ghost, but many. One of them uses Zelda’s robot, Orwell, to communicate with them, and they find out the ghosts aren’t ghosts at all. 

Set in a time in the not-so-distant future, the story destroys ideas of what is real, what isn’t, and the lengths people will go to in order to survive.

My review:

It is funny how I find myself obsessively following authors for what appear to be conflicting reasons. There are some whose books or series I keep on returning to because I know exactly what to expect and I need that comfort of familiarity. J.D. Robb is one such author for me.

And then there are authors like Theo Fenraven, who I search out because I never know what he’ll present me with next. No book is exactly like any of the previous releases. He hops from genre to genre with an apparent ease that leaves me both awed and somewhat jealous. Opening a new book by this author is always an adventure because I won’t know what I’m dealing with until I’m well into the story, by which stage the characters and the storyline will invariably have captured me.

In No Man’s Land, the author takes this trait of his one step further than he has done in the past. What I thought I was reading when the book started turned out not to be what this story was really about. I apologise for being vague, but discovering where this story was going was such a riveting and delightful surprise for me I don’t want to spoil that experience for anybody else.

What can I say about the story? Well, it is fascinating and gripping right from the start. It features characters who will intrigue you, and not all of them are exactly human J. And it brings us a tension-filled tale filled with both mystery and questions to ponder. In fact, while I loved this story and the way it was written at least as much as I’ve adored any of Theo Fenraven’s previous books, it was all the ‘what-if’s’ and ‘what-would-I-do’s’ it left me with that really hooked me.

Because that’s the thing with this author’s books; while they invariable give me a good and riveting story, they also force me to think about bigger and very topical issues. Not that you need to reflect on the story-line and what it means in order to enjoy this story. It can, very successfully, be read as a thrilling speculative tale. But if you enjoy lingering and reflecting on what you’ve read after you’ve finished a book—as I do—this book will leave you fulfilled on both counts.

Do yourself a huge favour and read No Man’s Land. Not only will you treat yourself to a fantastic story, which while not a romance does feature at least one love story, you will also find yourself pondering about the choices we make. And that’s before I even go into Theo Fenraven’s mastery of the English language, his carefully constructed sentences which paint detailed pictures without ever using a superfluous word.

Enjoy! I know I did.

Buy Links:

Amazon         Amazon UK