CBR3 Book 50: "Something Deadly This Way Comes" by Kim Harrison

Publisher: HarperCollins
Page count: 256 pages
Rating. 3 stars
Date begun: June 18th, 2011
Date finished: June 19th, 2011

WARNING! MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR PREVIOUS BOOKS IN THE SERIES!

This is the third book in a series. To get an impression of the general plot of the books, go read my review of book 2 in the series here, or start at the beginning with Once Dead, Twice Shy.


Madison is still struggling to get to grips with her role as the dark Timekeeper, and trying to prove that people's lives can be changed, and that the Dark Reapers don't have to kill a person to save their soul just as soon as their lives take a wrong turn. She has a vision that a teenage girl, Tammy, will lose her will to live and doom her soul once her brother dies in a fire, and goes to California with Nakita and Barnabas, her two Reapers, to convince her to stay home, but just appears to make things worse, at least to begin with. If she doesn't convince Tammy that her life is worth living quickly, she may be dooming her to die at the hands of another Dark Reaper.

Madison is also trying to learn how to control her amulet, and deal with her visions of the future of potentially cursed souls. She discovers that there may be a way of having her actual body back, but will also have to make the decision of whether she wants to continue as the Dark Timekeeper and keep trying to make a difference, or go back to being a normal teenage girl, with a normal life.

As Kim Harrison has now pretty much established the world of the Madison Avery books in her previous novels, she can focus on the main plot in this one. There's not that much added character development for Madison in the book, but we find out more about Barnabas and Nakita, and come to understand why they're not entirely thrilled with the idea of Madison finding her body and possibly giving up her duties as Timekeeper. It's a short and breezy read, if you've read and enjoyed the previous two books. There are some changes made towards the end of the book, that promises interesting developments in future installments.