10. The Paladin Prophecy - Mark Frost

#1 Paladin Prophecy
2012, Random House
550 pages
Goodreads rating: 4.13
cag rating:  5/A really great yarn

1st sentence:  "The Importance of an Orderly Mind.  Will West began each day with that thought even before he opened his eyes.  When he did open them, the same words greeted him on a banner across his bedroom wall:  #1: THE IMPORTANCE OF AN ORDERLY MIND."

My comments:  I was hooked on this story almost immediately.  It had many things going for it, and those that didn't failed to bother me in any way.  Characterization - excellent.  Plot - exciting (I just ignored anything too implausible or that I couldn't quite fathom because the rest of the story line was super) with enough adventure and mystery to keep the reader guessing and interested. Setting - really well defined and shown. Excitement scale - pretty high, especially for a  young adult.   A great mixture of realistic and scifi/fantasy with a lot of technology and imagination included.  I have three or four 4th graders that will really love this story....can't wait to read number two!

Goodreads:  Will West is careful to live life under the radar. At his parents' insistence, he's made sure to get mediocre grades and to stay in the middle of the pack on his cross-country team. Then Will slips up, accidentally scoring off the charts on a nationwide exam.
          Now Will is being courted by an exclusive prep school . . . and is being followed by men driving black sedans. When Will suddenly loses his parents, he must flee to the school. There he begins to explore all that he's capable of--physical and mental feats that should be impossible--and learns that his abilities are connected to a struggle between titanic forces that has lasted for millennia.
          Co-creator of the groundbreaking television series Twin Peaks, Mark Frost brings his unique vision to this sophisticated adventure, which combines mystery, heart-pounding action, and the supernatural.

47. The Messenger - Jan Burke

Simon & Schuster, 2009
HC $25.00
305 pages
for: adults
Rating: 5, gotta say it...couldn't put it down.

Well....this is a "supernatural thriller." No vampires, phew. But, one or two immortals in a society of humanity. Southern California humanity. LA foothills humanity. No specific descriptions of the setting, unfortunately, but a generalized sunny southern California. And a dog is one of the protagonists. Now, I am not a dog lover. But I couldn't put this book down. A really good mystery.

The book doesn't have different speakers, per se, but we switch back and forth to see the story from different perspectives. Amanda Clarke, early 20ish orphaned rich kid who doesn't work and roams around a big, expensive, LA foothills house. Tyler Hawthorne, 24 plus a few hundred years, Amanda's new next door neighbor. He's a messenger. He can hear the wishes of the comatose almost-dead and help them bring closure to devastated family. And he is indestructable, as long as his trusty, huge dog Shade is nearby. And then Amanda becomes the first person he has really confided in since his demise during the Battle of Waterloo.

Add one evil, ancient, supernatural being that has been turned into ashes and kept in a locked box at the bottom of the sea, a set of bickering cousins, and lots of people that are greatful to Tyler, and there's the story. Burke also threw in a foursome of ghosts - Amanda's dead parents aunt, and uncle, but I found this somewhat superflous and unneeded. Oh well, I could never think up a plot like this, so best leave it to the pros.

It looks like Jan Burke writes mystery short stories and a series of books based on Irene Kelly, an LA cop or investigator or something. These started appearing in 1993, and the library doesn't have the first five or six, so I'll have to track them down at Bookman's or online. But I'm looking forward to checking them out.