Something Deadly This Way Comes product reviews

The third instalment of Kim Harrison's Madison Avery series - the story of a not-really-quite-dead teenager with a task assigned by fate, that would have most grown adults cowering in terror. Assigned to duty as head of Heaven's hitsquad - tasked with saving souls at the expense of lives, by 'reaping' them before the soul starts to die, becomes tainted or corrupt - she is trying to change a millennia-old system in the span of a human lifetime... a task both overwhelming, and possible... if she could just get the Seraphs - Heaven's controllers of Fate - to give her a fighting chance.

As with the previous two stories, we find Madison a body-less soul, wearing the amulet of the Dark Timekeeper, which gives her the illusion of a solid body (for the sake of her mortal boyfriend - who knows all about her predicament - and father - utterly oblivious) and also cloaks her soul from the predatory Blackwings - the scavengers and eaters of souls not otherwise protected, either by a mortal shell, or a guardian angel. Back in story one, Madison's body was hidden by the previous Dark Timekeeper... in the second story Madison learned it was hidden '...between the now and the next...', and in this title, her main goal is to find that body at all costs, and then decide whether she will stay a living Timekeeper, or return to her mortal life. The Seraphs told her it was her choice... free will against the inertia of Fate...

The characters, even the most fleeting ones, are very well defined, with a depth that gives them credibility enough to play their parts, and then depart from the plot as 'people', not 'cardboard cutouts' that have been casually disposed of or blown away. Even though the target market is Teen to Young Adult, I actually find myself really enjoying this series. Yes, for me it is akin to some 'light reading' but that's good... who wants to wade through heavy tomes all the time... who doesn't like a 'light summer salad' in between the 'steak and three roast vege' every once in a while?

Overall, another worthy addition to the growing plot... which is developing some very interesting twists of it's own. This series is a bit like the sci-fi series "Babylon 5" for me... each instalment carries it's own story and plot elements, but in amongst that there are little bits of an overarching plot that slowly reveals itself to be something that is shaping up to be pretty spectacular in it's own right. Bring on Book 4!