DIVINE NIGHT

Author: Melanie Jackson ISBN: 9780505527370 12/2007 PARANORMAL Publisher: DORCHESTER

Alex had seen a dead man. Not that he should be surprised; he was supposedly dead too. Yet he, Alexandre Dumas, famous author of The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers, was most definitely still alive—and immortal. He had chronicled much of his life for his current publisher: swashbuckling exploits on every continent. But those “fictions” could be no more thrilling than this sudden reappearance of his arch-nemesis, the Comte de St. Germain, the man who had murdered Alex’s one true love…and whose heart he had torn out over sixty years ago. No less thrilling was the woman of whom Alex now dreamed, a daring beauty who made him hark back to older days, older hopes—a time of love and lust and the highest adventure. She promised escape from a solitary eternity, reminded him that even where darkness beckoned, there was still the sky, the stars immortal and…Divine Night.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

I have a love/hate relationship with the Divine works of Ms. Jackson. But, I love her creativity. The idea of famous poets and writers given immortality by a mad genius and still walking among us is a marvelous one. Sometimes, though, that unrivaled creativity spirals into strange scenes that are hard to decipher and imagine.

I suppose that last sentence sums up best how I feel about DIVINE NIGHT. The hero, Alexandre Dumas, is fabulous and intriguing enough to make me search out more about him on my own. But, I am not thrilled with the landscape he is given to showcase his wonderful self in, nor am I all that excited about his choice of heroine. But, I am fond of the book as a frame story that actually tells two, perhaps even three, stories simultaneously. So, yes, confusion reigns in this creative but strange book, but it is a fun confusion that ultimately makes sense and makes this latest Divine work just that.

Shannon Johnson