The Raven

The Raven

Mike Nappa

Revell

As part of his regular street performance, a deception specialist who goes by the name The Raven picks his audience's pockets while they watch. It's harmless fun--until he decides to keep the spare wallet a city councilman doesn't seem to miss, hoping for a few extra bucks. When he finds not money but compromising photos of the councilman and his "personal assistants," The Raven hatches a plan to blackmail the man. However, he quickly finds himself in over his head with the Ukrainian Mafia and mired in a life-threatening plot code-named, "Nevermore." 

Private investigators Trudi Coffey and Samuel Hill must scramble to sort out the clues--and their complicated feelings for each other--to rescue The Raven and save hundreds of lives from a wildcard bent on revenge. 

Mike Nappa snags readers from the first page of this fast-paced thriller--and he never lets go until the end.

     When I heard about Mike Nappa's novel Annabel Lee last year, I was immediately interested because of its Poe connection. Sadly, I never got the chance to read it, but I quickly jumped at the opportunity to read The Raven. Though I knew both of these titles were taken from Poe's works, I sadly didn't realize that they were part of the same series about the same people--a thoughtless oversight on my part! Luckily, this did not hinder my understanding of The Raven's plot, although I do wish I had read the previous book, as there was a lot of underlying tension between characters that made me wish for the background knowledge Annabel Lee would have given me.

     I have mixed feelings on this book. It took me a few chapters to get into- it has a "southern-fiction-ish" feel that I wasn't really expecting, and as that style of writing is not my favorite, I felt disappointed. Also, though this book would still probably be considered clean, it was a little rough around the edges, so to speak. That being said, it definitely grew on me the more I read. I love husband-and-wife detective teams, but I'd never read about an ex-husband-and-wife detective team. Coffey and Hill's relationship is an interesting one, although I felt like I didn't get to know either of their characters as well as I would have wished. 

     Honestly, I really can't decided whether or not I liked this book. It had a lot of characters (though they certainly weren't hard to keep track of) which were all layered with murky and tangled motivations. The geeky pop-culture references were appreciated, and of course anyone with an affinity for Edgar Allan Poe's works will find the premise intriguing. Perhaps I will try Annabel Lee and see what I think of that one before I fully commit to an "aye" or "nay" on this series. 

I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.