Jennifer Petkus

I really don't do the whole Jane Austen thing, or the Sherlock Holmes thing either, so Ivery reluctantly agreed to be an early reader for this book. It didn't take long for me to figure out that I would have been a fool to miss out on this book. It is absolutely delightful, with plenty of humor and mystery. It concerns the inestimable Miss Charlotte House, a brilliant woman known for her ability to help in matchmaking situations. She can quiet scandals or start them, whichever serves her purpose. Miss Jane Woodsen, a young lady in dire states after her father's death and her family's crash in wealth and status, ends up a guest of, and then an assistant to, Miss House and her investigations and machinations. It might sound like light fare, but it actually very quick witted and absorbing. This first book in a planned series involves six different "cases", leaving the investigative team, at the end of the book, planning to move back to London and take on the big city in the second novel. All in all, a very entertaining book for mystery lovers and fans of the England of the early 1800s.… (altro)

Jennifer Petkus is a Denver author who is doing the city proud, and I'm not just saying that because Tattered Cover (my employer) plays a roll in the book. The concept of this book is absolutely brilliant--the afterlife has been discovered, teeming with all the people who have ever died. Until just recently, they had no way to talk to each other let alone the living world, and sadly, many have gone insane from the isolation.

But now the internet is able to help--these disembodied folks can sign on to Afternet with their energy signatures and communicate with the world and each other. Some are even employed like police officer Alex Monroe, who works with a living partner, Linda, getting disembodied witnesses statements, doing special surveillance (he is invisible, after all), etc. Alex and Linda start to get reports of missing disembodied people and discover a sinister plot against the dead--because the disembodied can't move through physical objects, they can be trapped. Someone is doing just that to thousands of people.

This book has it all--humor, action, bits of philosophy and social/cultural commentary, a science-geek level of very plausible and fascinating sci-fi details that make the mind race--and it's very hard to put down once you open its covers. I'm going to be talking about this book like crazy, it is so fresh, intelligent and engaging that I can't NOT tell people about it. Five stars just aren't enough! READ THIS BOOK!… (altro)