“What can I say? As entertaining as the other novels, perhaps even more so. I've been a fan of Raine's Landing since I purchased the first novel in the series from the Science Fiction Book Club, and they just keep coming, each one as satisfactory as the last. I always look forward to opening a novel whose title has the subheading: A Raine's Landing Novel.
This one brings back familiar characters from past stories...Boston cop Lauren, a recovering Saul Hobart, and a pregnant Cassie, trying to maintain a normal life with her boyfriend, the recently-deceased adept Quinn Maycott, as well as others only mentioned previously. There's a little more on Willetts, who came to the Landing, committed what he considers a criminal sin, and stays to work out his own punishment. None of these side stories are enough to detract from the main theme, namely, why does the mysterious violet light suddenly gleam and then nasty things appear and do away with homes and their inhabitants in particularly gruesome ways? It also answers some questions I, and no doubt other readers, have raised through the years.
I'd call this one a nail-biter, and I'm not going to say any more for Spoilers can pop up unexpectedly whenever one speaks about the Landing. Just read it for yourself, and you'll see what I mean” – T.P. Vissage.
“Deadly Violet, along with the other Raine's Landing novels are page turners. Not a boring part in the whole series. Deadly Violet left you with a cliff hanger at the end, so I'm looking forward to the next in the series” -- Judy.
“Welcome back to Raine's Landing, the town that was built by the original Salem Witches as an escape from the infamous witch trials (1692). However, the town ended up on the wrong side of the wrong witch and found itself cursed in perpetuity. Anyone born in Raine's Landing can never leave and those not born there find it extremely hard to find or visit the town. It is due to this curse That Raine's Landing, a town populated primarily by magic users, exists just off a major highway in the present.
There are a few people who don't use magic in this town. Ross Devries--a former cop--and his tough sidekick, Cass Mallory, are two of them. Not only that, their peculiar backgrounds make them perfect problem solvers for whenever magic gets out of hand, something that seems to happen with some regularity in Raine's Landing.
Take this day for example: People have begun disappearing. And giant, purple worms with massive, circular rows of teeth that rotate are grinding unprepared people into nothingness. Then come the little bubbles of violet light that shoot through everything and everyone they find, repeatedly, destroying them just as surely as a "grinder" would. But when houses begin to disappear and people are attacked by their worst nightmares, even the town's adepts can't stop the destruction.
They keep trying though. Trying to understand and communicate with the intelligent, violet life-forms who seem to be behind all that is happening. But when the sun itself takes on a purple hue, it leaves everyone certain that reality is being consumed by another universe.
Since magic has failed to protect them, Ross and Cass seem to be the only people who can fix this particular problem. What's the source of that problem? A little girl a hundred years in the past has stolen a powerful talisman, reached out and forward to find the "little girl" from previous stories (She occupies one room in an abandoned house, hovering in the air, spinning slowly and seeing all) and then entwined their minds. It's this that has caused a rip in the continuum of space and allowed the strangest of races access to our world.
With the clock ticking down to nothingness, Ross and Cass must somehow find a way to break the bond between the two girls and repair the bridge between the universes.
Be sure to pick up a copy of this superb fantasy. Deadly Violet by Tony Richards just hums along, taking you at high speed to places of which you will never have dreamed. In fact, I think Deadly Violet is the best Raine's Landing novel to date. ” – Clayton Bye.
The book is available for $2.99 (plus a very small delivery fee) from Amazon Kindle, and for those who prefer something more solid, a paperback version ought to be ready sometime later this year.
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