Name: The Talebearer
ISBN: 9781635551266

Sheri Lewis Wohl

Liz's visions show her the faces of the lost and the killers who took their lives. As one by one, the murdered are found, a stranger works to stop Liz before the serial killer is brought to justice.

The Talebearer

Carol Bailey

This was an interesting story and I enjoyed it, for the most part. The chapters tend to focus on a different main character and tells the story from their point if view. This actually worked for me and made the story more interesting. Unfortunately, every 4th chapter or so was from the perspective of the serial killer who refers to themself in the 3rd person as "The Jaguar". I found this particular style or POV confusing to read and by the time I was near the end if the story I was considering skipping all the chapters from that characters POV. I tried to convince myself that it was part of the psychosis of the serial killer but mostly it annoyed me.

For the last 19 years and 363 days, Elizabeth Boone walked into the federal courthouse without a problem. On day 364, a bullet sends her to the hospital and changes her life forever. In the aftermath of the shooting, Liz quits her job and moves to a small house on the edge of a beautiful park in Spokane, but life doesn’t get back to normal. Visions haunt her, pushing her to the point of despair. Reaching out for help she meets a fellow survivor, Willow Blue, and together they discover Liz’s visions show her the faces of the lost and the killer who took their lives. As one by one the murdered are found, a stranger works to stop Liz before the serial killer is brought to justice. Will the love they discover in each other be enough to keep Liz safe? Or will she be the next to die?

Megan Cooper

I tend to run hot and oold on Wohl's books. This is one I really enjoyed. TheTalebearer is a light paranormal mystery with a hint of romance. I was really happy to see that Wohl resisted the urge to play up the romance and focused on the mystery and paranormal aspects which I think made for a tighter story line. There's a connection established between Liz and Willow, but it simmers in the background as there really are more pressing things to deal with during the story.

The book revolves around LIz as she receives visions of women who have been killed by a heretofore unknown serial killer. Already mentally and emotionally fragile from being the victim of a near fatal shooting, Liz's self assurance and confidence strengthens as she and her friends begin to follow the clues from the visions. The chemistry between the characters - Elizabeth, Willow, Meg and Eldon - really worked. You could see the bonds of friendship and respect. I had a bit of a hard time with Eldon - he made some odd decisions (watching Liz's house from a car parked down the street - probably not the best thing to get your paranoid friend to relax, and his decision to throw in with the search for the woman in the vision when his sister was missing) but he was a nice guy and it was sweet to see another budding romance building with his crush, Meg.

This is a serial killer mystery - with the horrifying idea that there's a serial killer who has been so well prepared and methodical that she's (yes, she) been operating for years with no one even noticing due to the random selection of victims. There's really no blood or gore or police procedures. The leads don't really hunt or catch the killer as much as find bodies and foil her plans to remain undiscovered. This of course results in them becoming targets of her ire. 

As part of this book, Wohl adds chapters from the killer's POV. Normally I despise this plot device but I think she actually made it work. Even after the killer self-names herself The Jaguar, I didn't cringe. Yeah ... she was a sociopathic serial killer, but I still think she was a pretty awesome character and the inclusion of her POV helped move things along and pushed the suspense up a few notches. There's a few things that are a bit too convenient - Jaguar is delayed while disposing her latest victim and sees the police discovering one of her earlier carefully hidden victims. It is a bit of a stretch - but it gives Jaguar a nice little arc where her cool calm demeanor starts to unravel and she starts making rash decisions - which crank up the suspense as she fixates on Liz and her friends. 

This was a good light read that had just enough mystery, just enough paranormal and just enough potential romance to make it a satisfying read.

The Talebearer

Reviews

Highlights