First, Mr. Matthews made a strategic mistake in choosing his title: "The Forever Man" has been used at least a dozen times, perhaps most notably by SF superstar Gordon Dickson. Having noted this, the book does in fact hang together, and I found it an enjoyable read. There is a little coda at the end which a reviewer won't spoil for the reader, but it caused me to commence a worthwhile Google search on the author's references and the back story for this novel.

The story itself is firmly in the "supernatural in our world" genre, with the protagonist a lady sheriff with family trouble. This genre piece is a mash-up with "a stranger comes to town"; several strangers in fact. It all works reasonably well. The violence and supernatural elements are handled very well, and some of the characters come along nicely through the story. The rather complex plot is nicely constructed, but perhaps with too much of an eye towards the continuing series.

With the best will in the world, however, the author and the book aren't quite the finished product. The characterisation of the sheriff's family, for example, is minimal when it should have been integrated into the story. You can't lead a book with the kidnap victim, then have her disappear until the last pages, in the way this book does. The end resolution doesn't quite ring true either, though there are nice hooks to set up a serialisation.

As a cheap kindle book this is worth the investment. But I hope that Mr. Matthews will think a bit more deeply about subsidiary character linkages and development, and how this plays off the motivations and actions for the main characters. ( )