Catherine MulvanyRecensioni

A math teacher is drawn into a desperate search for her missing uncle at the same time fighting her new enemies in a bid to save herself as well. It all started with a book which was sent to her by her uncle from Scotland for her birthday. She doesn't know it but it a book written by thee Merlin and it contains the secret of immortality. So travels to Scotland to begin searching for Magnus and meets up with a handsome playboy who's a secret spy sent by the British government to retrieve the book before it falls into the wrong hands. I didn't like this book. I couldn't really pick out a specific thing that I hated but instead I felt literally nothing while reading it. it was so bland and so packed with dialogue that my eyes glazed over. I didn't mind the characters but felt zero chemistry between them. This is way I don't like romantic suspense novels. The whole story is so focused on the mystery and the intrigue that the romance-which is what a romantic bovels should be about-takes a back seat. On top of that there wasn't much suspense in the damn thing until the end. Most of the book is spent talking about-in great detail-historical facts and who might have the uncle and why they want the book and blah blah blah. Give me a chessy vampire romance novel of this anyday!

This one has the romance, the hero and heroine in danger, and a touch of the paranormal. While I really enjoyed the book while reading it, looking back I can see that it exemplifies the case of the 'author still learning her craft' early novel. While enjoyable it probably wouldn't tempt me into a reread as the book got off to a somewhat slow start and was pretty predictable with oft-used elements from similar books. The Mediterranean island kingdom, the ancient manuscript, the 'curse', the prince in disguise, the kidnapping of the heroine's stepfather, and on and on...

It wasn't really a who dunnit book like I thought it would be but, It certainly was a page turner tho! I will be keeping my eye on this author!

My first read by Catherine Mulvany, "Shadows All Around Her", just blew me away and "Something Wicked" was enough to put her on my 'authors to watch' list. Now she's followed those up with "Wicked Is the Night", an action-packed paranormal suspense that was a lovely way to spend an afternoon.

Nevada is a woman with no memories of who she is. She only knows that, until she escaped, she was in an institution and her psychic powers were being painfully tested like she was a guinea pig. Since her escape, there have been a string of murders in her wake and two strange men tracking her. She's just looking for somewhere to hide until she can figure out what to do about her past...and her future.

Trick can't believe what he saw; some trucker just dumped a body out the window! When he and his friend stop to check, they find Nevada. The mystery of her life is just what Trick needed to jar him from his bout of self-pity after the wreck that ended his racing career. He's just as sane as the next man, but when the murders appear to be committed by vampires? What the hell is Nevada mixed up in?

While this book wasn't as suspenseful as say, Kay Hooper, or Linda Howard...it was plenty enough to keep me turning the pages at quite a clip. I enjoyed the appearance of a character from her last book and will be eager to see what she comes up with next in her world of vampires and demon-hunters.

Investigative reporter Regan Cluny has been trying to get an interview with Charles Cunningham Nash for some time, but the reclusive philanthropist has been avoiding her. So now she's decided to take the bull by the horns and confront him face-to-face at his mysterious archaeological dig in New Mexico.

Before she gets there, however, she's attacked and left for dead by a motorcycle gang... of vampires. Not that she'll tell anyone about the vampires, though: who would believe her?

Nash would--seeing as how he's also a vampire, and the leader of the gang who attacked her is his long-time enemy. Being a vampire is one of the reasons for his secrecy. The other is that he's looking for a mystical healing spring in the hopes of curing his vampirism.

Nash rescues Regan, and they begin to fall in love, complicated by them each having a very big secret: Nash is a vampire, and Regan is dying of cancer. What makes it even more complex is that Regan's disease killed the vampire who bit her in the attack.

So, nice conflict: they're falling in love, but each is a serious danger to the other, even if they don't know it.

Something Wicked is one of those rare cases where the characters have secrets and I'm not wanting to whack them upside the head to just spill it already. Both Regan and Nash have very good reasons to keep their secrets, and Regan is unaware that hers could prove deadly to Nash.

There was a nice balance here between the romance and the action/suspense plot, and kudos to Catherine for not pulling her punches. The bad guy here is ruthless (although he has a human side as well), and he acts accordingly.

Kudos also for a slightly different take on the vampire mythology. The vampires in Something Wicked drink blood, avoid direct sunlight, and are near-immortal, but they're not super-powerful, nor do they shapeshift.

I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing--the setting in New Mexico (great memories there--3 months' worth of weekends with Carl before we got married) and the archaeological details, the secondary characters that became real, and the hair-raising suspense. I'll be looking for Catherine Mulvany's backlist, and her future books.